


[F]inal Rites

by NightError_145



Series: [R]ebirth [1]
Category: NieR: Automata (Video Game)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Fluff, Friendship, Gen, I'm Bad At Summaries, Machine & Android Friendship, Other, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Post-Ending E (NieR: Automata)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-17
Updated: 2018-08-17
Packaged: 2019-04-24 04:26:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 13
Words: 34,108
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14347935
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NightError_145/pseuds/NightError_145
Summary: Amidst a small desert ruin, two companions investigated what appeared to be a vending machine, not knowing that this would lead to a series of events which would change their lives forever.[On Hiatus]





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Okay so...This is my first time posting any form of fanfic, so feedback is highly appreciated! This work will likely deviate from the canon a tad, but I'll do my best to stick with it throughout the story.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Edit(May 20): Corrected Aesop's description

Amidst a small desert ruin, two companions investigated what appeared to be a vending machine. The larger of the two was a machine lifeform with a rugged cylinder shaped body resting on top of a rectangular base, and treads in place of feet. Two simplistic arms came off of the taller cylindrical section of body, a square head placed near the top with joints to allow for movement. The smaller of the two sported a black, armoured suit, seemingly made out of a form of carbon. The suit was unmistakably android-made, and covered the body from head to toe. The size difference between the two was huge, yet the familiarity between the two was obvious even from a distance. The machine tapped the vending machine.

“I say, old chap! Isn’t it odd that I'm able to touch this?” the machine exclaimed, “Normally these bloody things won’t let machines ten feet near them!” 

The android tilted its head with concern at the machine, who turned his head towards his companion.

“Hmm? You want to check this thing out?” The android nodded slightly, “Whatever you say, old chap! You have that interface device yes?” 

Another small nod from the android answered the machine’s question, and made him back away from the vending machine slightly. As they approached the vending machine, the android procured a small, rod-shaped object from a satchel on its side. The device began to whir to life with a faint, blue light, which reflected off of the mask worn by its user. A stream of blue became visible between the screen of the ‘vending machine' and the device.

After about a minute had passed, the stream suddenly burst in a flash of blue light. The android turned around with a slight skip in its step. The machine started laughing heartily. 

“Ohohoho! Excellent job, old chap!” he reached his arm out to take the device the android was offering him, 

“Let's see here…seems as if there are ruins up ahead of old human settlements. They aren’t incredibly accurate from this point though. We might want to examine it a bit first, old chap.” 

The android raised its hand to its chin in consideration, before nodding their head at the machine, who started laughing again.

“Ohohoho! Well then, old chap, we aren’t going to get there by just standing around here doing nothing! Let us proceed!” the machine turned and began moving towards the large cliff faces ahead of them, the android followed close behind.

It wasn’t long before a several desert machines suddenly popped out of the sand and charged at them with a murderous red glint in their eyes. The older machine reached behind him and pulled out a crude black spear with numerous indentations along the blade's length. 

“I wager these gents wouldn’t allow for a nice, healthy conversation now would they, old chap?” The smaller companion (who was now riding on the machine's back) seemed to glare from within the mask at this comment and turned their attention to the machine's flanks. The local machines were seemingly more interested in destroying the android than i's larger companion—which is exactly what the two wanted. 

As soon as one of the desert machines got within range of their adversary’s spear, a quick jab drove straight through their chest, annihilating them. Those who managed to get anywhere near the android shared a similar fate, this time by a small gun in the androids possession, hitting them dead on in their weak points. The battle was over within a matter of seconds. The machine looked over the parts dropped by his former assailants and scoffed.

“Pah! Nothing here which looks like it could be used as a decent voice chip here, old chap.” As the machine began to stand back up, he felt a pressure being applied on his left arm. The android was holding down the arm lightly, shaking its head submissively. The machine seemed to get irritated for a moment.

“STOP SAYING IT ISN’T A PROBLEM! You can’t be stuck without a voice forever!” the machine's voice had become more robotic and hard, causing the android to jump back a little, before looking down and to the left. 

“H-hey….I'm…I'm sorry, old chap. Okay? It’s just… it isn’t fair that you have to live as an outcast. You’re an android, you have so many things to talk about but no easy way to do it. As much as I enjoy the time we spend together adventuring, you shouldn’t be forced to keep those thoughts inside.” The machine looked over the seemingly endless expanse of dunes, “I was the same way once…I know how painful it can be.” 

The android did something not unlike a sigh (though no real sound was made aside from air blowing against the inside of the mask), and continued to walk in the same direction the two had been travelling prior. The machine started laughing again.

“Hohoho! Great to see your good old enthusiastic-self, back old chap!” the machine replaced the spear it had been holding in its right hand and followed.

The two had no idea what had just occurred in the area they were entering, and neither expected how it would change their lives forever.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was mostly just to help me develop the writing style for this fanfic.


	2. Aesop & Autumn

   Aesop hit one of his treads which was acting up with his spear. He was old for a machine on Earth. In fact, he had reasoned nearly a millennia earlier that he was probably the oldest still functional machine lifeform on the planet; a conclusion which had taken him nearly 50 years to come to. Fairly short, given how long he had been disconnected from the network. 

Aesop was an older model which probably didn’t carry his name when they were first created, but since his memories had become damaged, he couldn’t remember what that name originally was, nor could he remember the aliens which created his kind. He had put together over time (roughly 1000 years, give or take 125) that his kind was extremely inefficient at killing androids, and therefore stopped production after the first batch was created and tested. Aesop knew from the two memories he still possessed from his connection to the network that he was meant to originally be a sort of anti-air/anti-armour unit. His body was actually a deployable cannon as it turned out, though it ceased function ages ago. 

One of the reasons why his kind had ceased production was due to this cannon having a high tendency to miss it’s target, an issue which Aesop had theorized had something to do with faulty wiring in their aiming circuits. It was an issue which lead to his model being annihilated during an assault on one of the many abandoned factories that was to be repurposed for machine production. The attack had been lead by the remainder of the Aesop units, accompanied by many other old and now extinct machines. The plan had been to use the cannons on the Aesop units as a form of battering ram, to punch through the defense systems in place around the factory. What the machines hasn’t expected was that the androids had already anticipated the attack—to an extent at least. The androids realized that since the Aesop units would be spearheading the attack, they could take the opportunity to have them wipe each other out by exploiting their flawed design. The end result: 500 Aesop units firing extremely powerful lasers towards their targets, and destroying each other as they aimed towards the androids jumping into the middle of them.

Normally, the units would have converted into their infantry configuration, however, the Aesop units had been given specific commands: destroy the door to the factory, a task most easily accomplished in artillery form. Aesop was near the rear of the formation (which he figured is why he survived) when the androids hit, they had woven between the large tank-like machines, striking many with impeccable accuracy, in what was likely a bluff charge meant to rile up the machines. The first machine to take aim on the androids was somewhere in the middle, it’s laser gun charged, it turned to it's right and fired at the android nearest to it. Roughly 15 units were obliterated in that first shot, many of which were also charging causing a massive explosion which damaged surrounding units. Aesop was unfazed at first, he didn’t exactly have emotion at that point, no machine did. However, when the fifth unit demolished another swath of fellow machines, Aesop was caught in the explosion of one of them, sending his body flying away from the scene of destruction before him. 

 Aesop had bounced twice before coming to a rest roughly 100 metres away from his formation. His body transformed from the artillery configuration to the standard, combative configuration. He had looked around in confusion—followed by fear as the corpses of his former comrades lay before him. This was the moment when Aesop had been accidentally disconnected from the Network. What made him run away that day— made him save himself—Aesop didn’t know, but it did allow him a lot of time to think, and eventually, that time ended up giving him a companion: the strange android known as Autumn.

 Although Aesop carries no memory of how long they had known each other, he still remembered how they had met: by literally running into each other. For Aesop, the day had been pretty much like any other: he had been observing the way that earth seemed to be recovering after the aliens invaded and had been wiped out by the machines, as well as scanning through some of the old human records he could find. As he was proceeding around the corner of one of the ruined buildings in the city he was exploring at that time, he suddenly felt a slight weight push against his left side. When he turned his head he saw a small, strangely dressed humanoid staring at him behind a heavy mask in what Aesop presumed was shock. 

“Sorry about tha—” Aesop had barely even begun an apology when a group of bipedal machines came into view, rounding the corner of another building. What appeared to be the leader of the group pointed it's gun at the android and shouted at Aesop.

“ MACHINE. KILL. ANDROID. NOW.” The crimson red burning behind the machine's eyes suddenly seemed to change just slightly when Aesop reached behind his back and grabbed his spear. The look would have been impossible for a human or even an android to pick up on, but it spoke the truth of the sudden realization by all 4 of the machines in the group.

“ MACHINE. THOUGHT. CAN’T TELL.YOU TRAITOR.” The leader said in a voice which somehow gave away that he was scared of Aesop. 

“ YOU TRAITOR. YOU TRAITOR. YOU TRAITOR.” The smaller machines began chanting in unison. Aesop motioned for the android to get behind him, which they quickly scurried to do as Aesop readied himself. 

“YOU ARE A TRAITOR. SO DIE.” The machines said as the smaller units charged Aesop. The first small biped to get to him reeled back to strike him with an axe, but that was all it took for Aesop to quickly dispatch of it, the spear knocked the machine's head clean off, causing the rest of the body to slump over in a heap. The other two bipeds were positioned directly behind one another, an opportunity which Aesop seized instantly as he charged and ran them into one another before destroying them with the spear. All that remained was the leader, who had seemingly forgotten how to fight. His body was visibly shaking, something it had probably been doing since the first biped was destroyed. 

“ S-STAY AWAY. T-TRAITOR.” The machine was panicking, too afraid to even take aim on its larger adversary. Aesop didn’t bother listening to its pleas, he already knew that there was no point trying to save machines that were still connected to the network and exhibited aggression. He reeled back his arm, and threw the spear directly into the leader's chest. 

“WHY……..BETRAY……..US” The leader managed to choke out as the light faded from his eyes. Aesop retrieved his spear, and headed back towards the android, who was clearly a bit shaken. 

“ Right’ho! That should take care of that problem. Anyways, I apologize for running into you like that, it was rather impolite of me.” Aesop hung his head slightly in a gesture not unlike shame. The small android just shook their head, and bowed slightly. Aesop looked at them in confusion, a question popping into his mind.

“I say, aren’t you a bit small for being a solo android? I mean I’ve heard of recon androids working solo, but of your stature?” The android suddenly looked extremely lost after being asked the question, as if they didn’t know how to respond to it, before it shook it’s head. _I see…_ Aesop thought to himself, _So this android is likely not associated with the resistance in the slightest._ He spoke up again

“ You're a loner I presume?” Aesop asked. The android nodded. 

“ Is there a reason you can’t speak with me right now?” The android once again nodded. 

“Hmm, how long have you been out here by yourself?” The android shrugged.

“I see….” Aesop thought for a minute. The android he had just met was deemed an enemy by machines and seemed answered all of his questions honestly; however, they had not answered orally once, meaning they either didn’t have the ability to, or they were giving Aesop the silent treatment. As he was about to bid the android farewell and continue on his way, a thought entered his head.

“ You aren’t able to talk are you?” Aesop asked, seemingly catching the android off guard, since they jumped a bit at the question. The android began to shake their head slowly, Aesop nodded in understanding.

“Right'ho! Then how about I make a proposal with you?” The android lifted their head up in a sharp movement, curiosity emanating from their body. 

“ It would be cruel for an android such as yourself to not be able to properly communicate with your own kind, yes? Therefore, I have decided to take it upon myself to assist you in acquiring a voice.” Aesop didn’t know why he had decided on doing such a thing, but it was now a bit late to go back on his words. From behind the mask, the android just stared at the machine (Aesop assumed with a look of shock), before shaking their head again. 

“Hohoho! You think you’ll be a burden, eh?” Aesop laughed, “Well then, consider it payment for me saving your life back there.” The android stopped shaking it’s head and looked at Aesop, before letting out what was most likely a sigh (only air could be heard blowing against the inside of the mask however). Aesop laughed.

“ Excellent! It’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance—” Aesop stopped, “Come to think of it, I don’t believe we've been properly introduced! My name is Aesop, pleasure to meet you. And you are?” The android seem to look to the side.

“Ah…you can’t exactly say your name, right?” Aesop said, “ That’s alright, once we—” he was cut off by the android pulling out a rod-like device and pointing it at him. He looked at it with confusion.

“Um, what might this be?” Aesop was being cautious, he didn’t know if this android had suddenly turned on him or not, but he wanted to believe the former was not the case. The android shoved it in Aesop’s direction, motioning him to do something with it.

  “You…want me to grab this?” The android nodded. Trusting his new acquaintance, Aesop reached out his own arm and grabbed the end of the rod pointing towards himself.  
The minute he touched the device a strange jolt seemed to ripple through his body. It wasn’t necessarily unpleasant—in fact Aesop felt no pain at all during the experience—but it was fairly odd for him to be connected to a network once again, something he realized right after completing the link between his mind and—

 “Autumn, huh? Pleasure to make your acquaintance.” Autumn froze up for a moment at Aesop's words, which he noticed instantly.

 “Ohohoho! Not used to being called by your name, huh old chap?” Autumn looked at Aesop in confusion, “Hmm? I’m doing what any good gentleman would do with someone who’s a casual acquaintance. I’m calling you ‘old chap’ because its easier than calling you by your name. That’s what humans used to do all the time.” Autumn nodded their heads in understanding, crossing their arms in the process. 

 “Either way, we best get a move on, old chap! We won’t get you a voice chip by just standing around here!” Aesop began moving towards the outskirts of the city, a small android with a slight skip in their step following closely behind him.

  That was the day Aesop met Autumn. The day the two became acquaintances. The day the two became companions. The day the two became friends.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, so I decided to put in a second chapter this week since the prologue honestly felt like it didnt really give a whole lot as far as story went. Plus, the last chapter was a bit short. 
> 
> Hopefully, I can keep each new chapter around the length of this one.


	3. Activation (Part One)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was a bit shorter than the rest so I decided to post it early. 
> 
> Next chapter will be longer.

   Aesop looked out from the large archway that he and Autumn had determined was the best way to the supposed city from their previous location. Ahead was a collection of broken-down apartment buildings, aging slowly in the desert sand. 

  “Well I say, old chap! It seems there is indeed a city here!” Autumn nodded slightly, then looked at Aesop. 

  “Find more of those access points you say, old chap?” Aesop brought his hand up to his chin in consideration, “Right’ho! I suppose it couldn’t hurt! Let’s get going, old chap!”

  Aesop motioned for the android to hop on the back portion of his body.

  “We’ve got quite a ways to go before we reach the city, so hop on old chap!” Autumn complied, and jumped up onto the small portion of Aesop’s rear which had space for them to stand on. The minute Aesop got the signal from Autumn, he took off. Despite his age, Aesop still had it in him to move at high speeds. Of course, ‘high speed’ was really only slightly faster than most machines, but it was still faster than how fast Autumn could run. 

    Within a few minutes, the two of them had made it to the outermost of the buildings. Noticing another vending machine, Aesop motioned for Autumn to get off and interface with it while he stood guard.

  After 5 rather uneventful minutes, Autumn finally managed to finish extracting information from the box. Aesop turned around to look at Autumn in confusion, hoping for an answer for the longer wait. 

   “…..it……needed to be rebooted?” Autumn nodded, Aesop lowered his head in understanding. “These things aren’t very reliable, huh old chap?.... They’re….. access points? For who?” Autumn shook their head,

“Wasn’t able to retrieve that much, old chap?” The android bowed their head in apology before Aesop quickly waved it off, “ Anyways, old chap, looks like there’s a larger city on the other side of this area. Perhaps well find some more information on voice chips there?”

  Autumn hopped onto Aesop’s back, signaling for the machine to continue.  
They stopped off at another access point, though there was not much in the way of success for new map information or info on what the boxes were. A few machines also attempted to attack the two of them, with little success. After roughly 30 minutes of navigating through the maze of buildings, Aesop finally arrived at a small tunnel which appeared to lead out of the complex. Autumn cast a worried glance upon arriving at the many ledges of stone which stood in their way. The android couldn’t jump very high, and generally had to be helped up onto higher places by Aesop, who generally had to find another way around, or had to wait for Autumn to lower a contraption of some kind. Of course, this time there was no easy way around. Aesop just laughed at Autumn's concern, patting the smaller android on the head.

“Ohoho! This won’t keep me from getting up there, old chap!” Aesop grabbed his spear from behind him and jammed it into the ledge, “Here, I’ll help you up old chap.”

 The machine grabbed the android by the sides and hoisted them up onto the higher ledge, before grabbing the spear and lifting himself up just enough to reach the top surface of the ledge, before jamming the spear into the top of the ledge, driving himself up the rest of the way. Autumn simply stared in amazement at the machine.

  “Ohohoho! I’ve still got it, old chap!” Aesop yanked out the spear from the ground, checking it over for damage, before replacing it on his back. “Let’s continue onwards!”

  
After a few more seemingly impossible traversing of terrain, the long shadows of skyscrapers came into view. Noticing another access point, Aesop stopped beside a group of 3 several-tiered machines to allow Autumn to attempt interfacing with the metal box. As the android extracted data from the access point, Aesop looked in curiosity at the tall, armless machines looking at the two of them. The old machine thought to himself why such a design would be at all beneficial to the machines at all, before eventually abandoning the thought when he spotted a burst of blue from the corner of his eye. As he turned to face Autumn, Aesop noticed the android’s body language betrayed a feeling of annoyance. 

   “Couldn’t get anything this time around either, old chap?” Autumn handed their device to Aesop, who grabbed it and skimmed through the data. 

   “Hmm…So this has a little bit more data on the city, but it’s definitely nothing major. Guess these things really don’t like us, huh old chap?” Though Aesop couldn’t see it, he swore that Autumn had rolled their eyes. Aesop returned the interface device back to it's owner, and turned back towards the path leading to the city.

   “Right'ho! Let’s get a move on, old chap! I have a feeling we'll find a voice chip here for sure!” Aesop said this with such confidence and energy, even Autumn lightened up after hearing the machine's words.

 

Even though it was a phrase which had been said over and over in the past, and had never been true.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N:If you weren't able to tell, the ellipses between sentences in Aesop's dialogue are representing information exchanges between Autumn and himself.


	4. Activation (Part Two)

  Jackass rummaged through the multiple files she had on E-drug side effects, she was hoping to hopefully find out how to improve the formula more. She just needed more data, then she could—

   Her thoughts were cut short by the sound of treads rolling over desert sand. _A goliath tank?_ She thought to herself, _No that’s impossible, they never come this close to the city._ Jackass peered cautiously out at the small archway leading to the desert. As the sound of treads grew louder, a tall, odd-looking machine came into view. The machine had treads instead of feet, two long arms attached to a cylindrical body, and it’s head was square, protruding off of the body slightly. But what caught Jackass's attention the most, wasn’t the fact that this was a machine she had never seen before, but instead the small, armoured figure riding in it's back. _An android travelling with a machine, huh? Can’t say it’s the weirdest thing I’ve seen._ Jackass kept herself mostly hidden as she watched the two come to a stop at the ledge which was blocking their path to the city. She realized after a few seconds that one of them was talking, so she tried picking up what she could.

“—one last hurdle, old chap! Get ready and I’ll boost you up!” The machine lifted up the android onto the rocky ledge, who quickly turned around and looked back at their companion. _Awfully energetic machine,_ Jackass thought to herself.

“Ohohoho! We've already been through this type of trial plenty of times, old chap! I’ll be fine!” _Huh? I don’t remember hearing the android say anything, maybe they're just a quiet ty—_

Before Jackass could finish her thought, she stood wide-eyed as the machine lifted it's metal body slowly up onto the ledge using a spear. _How did it—that shouldn’t be possible._ The woman racked her brain for an answer to what she just saw, given how small the machine’s arms were compared to the rest of the body— _that shouldn’t have been possible…_ Jackass was snapped back out of her thoughts when she saw the machine and android begin towards her tent. The machine hadn’t seemed to notice her just yet however, so she opted to eavesdrop for a bit longer.

“Well, old chap, I believe we have finally reached the city, wouldn’t you say?” The android that had been on the machine’s back earlier was now walking on it's left. They looked at the machine for a moment before suddenly turning to where Jackass was ‘hiding’.

“Hmm? Someone’s here, old chap?” The machine's voice had become darker, it was still quite cheery for a machine, but there was an edge of hostility in it's voice. As if by instinct the machine had reached around and retrieved a spear from its back and turned towards Jackass's location. _Well shit._ The trained android reached for the gun she had tucked under her belt, _This might not get pretty but—_

“Huh? Old chap…?” _What?_ Jackass slowly began to look to where the machine was, _Seriously?!?_

The machine had been stopped by the android simply putting a hand on their companion’s arm. Jackass stood up slowly, readying herself in the event that she would need to pull out her gun. The machine scrutinized her carefully, before it looked at the android (Who Jackass only now realized was extremely short), and began to laugh.

“Ohoho! Don’t tell me you were just scared of talking with a girl now, old chap!” the android punched the machine lightly before looking off at the building above Jackass's tent. Although she couldn’t see it, Jackass had a feeling that the android was blushing. The machine turned back to her.

“I apologize for that little misunderstanding, miss. We're a bit on edge given all the machines these days are so aggressive.” The machine replaced it’s spear, which Jackass had been eyeing, wondering how the weapon was able to carry the weight of such a large hunk of metal.

“Eh, it’s not that big of deal, honestly. If anything, you just made my day a bit more eventful.” The female android crossed her arms and walked towards the two companions, “Not every day you get to see a machine walking around with an android, what brings you here?” The machine looked from Jackass to the smaller android.

“ I suppose introductions are in order beforehand, yes? My name is Aesop, and this old chap here is Autumn. The two of us are busy looking for a voice chip for Autumn. Hopefully, it will allow the old chap to integrate into a community of androids.” The machine seemed to have a tinge of sadness to it’s voice when it spoke, “ You wouldn’t happen to have anything on hand would you?”

“Unfortunately, no I don’t. I don’t think I’ve ever heard of an android without the ability to speak before” _Though there are definitely a couple I wish didn’t have it_ , “I got supplies if you want them though.”

Aesop let out a sigh, “I had a feeling…Are you sure you don’t have anything on voice chips?”

Jackass hadn’t realized it for a moment, but the android had moved closer to her while she was talking with Aesop, and their body language was practically begging her to help them. _Goddamnit_.

“Actually,” the female android began, causing Autumn to snap upright. “I might have some info on voice chips lying around, just give me a sec…” Jackass walked over to her terminal and began scanning through the files. After about 3 minutes, she returned with a small package of files.

“This is what I could find on voice chips, apparently these were made for older models of androids as a way to supplement their language systems.” She handed the files off to Aesop, “There's plans and materials in there for recreating one of your own. Hopefully, that helps you.”

Aesop seemed to stare at Jackass in shock for a moment before snapping back to reality, bowing his head.

“T-Thank you. Truly……..But, this is worth more than we could ever repay y—”

“Oh don’t think this info is free, I’m giving this to you because I expect some combat data in return.” The machine looked at her confusedly.

“I’ve never seen any machine like you around here before and I doubt I’ll ever see your type again, so I want all the combat data I can get from you while I still can!” A lust had entered Jackass's eyes, _If they head out now and get themselves killed, I won’t gain anything from this, and I’ll probably get in huge trouble if the higher ups find out I’m giving away info to machines._

“Here’s the deal big guy, you see those machines over there?” Jackass motioned to the archway where the two had come from, now magically filled with several machine lifeforms. “I need you to clear those out in 1 minute in order to get the data I need. Hopefully you don’t have any issues with killing your own kind?”

“These ones are aggressive, yes? In that case, I have no qualms in this endeavor.” Aesop trundled over to the ledge, taking out his spear in the process.

*_*_*_*

Holding the shaft tightly, Aesop slammed the blade end into the ground below, before driving over the small cliff. Autumn seemed to wince at the sound of the front end of their companion hitting the ground, contrasting the female android's reaction of amazement and amusement at the machine's audacity.  
After his rear made it to the base of the ledge, Aesop pulled the spear from the ground and readied himself. The seven machines in front of him were of varying sizes, but all of them were ground-based, which saved him the hassle of needing to coax flyers into getting within range of his spear.

After a brief analysis of the enemy, Aesop charged at the largest machine (a medium biped who wasn’t expecting it for some unknown reason), thrusting his spear through the its chest. No sooner had the machine's chest been pierced, that Aesop had swung it’s body at one of the smaller machines, destroying both of them. The other somewhat large machine aimed it’s gun in the direction of Aesop, but never had the chance to fire, as the corpse of a small stubby smashed into its head. Before the machine could get it’s bearings, its head was knocked off cleanly with the end of Aesop's spear. The old machine turned towards the ledge and repeated the same process he had used earlier to hoist himself up. He was greeted by the robed android smirking (crazily?), and a relieved Autumn running up to him.

-_-_-_-

“ Woah, old chap! I’m in no need of medical attention. This test was but child’s play.” Aesop turned to Jackass, “ Is that all you needed? As I have said we are truly indebted to you; however, the two of us really must be on our way.”

The female android put her hand to her chin in mock consideration, glancing over at the smaller android who now looked ready to jump behind Aesop at any second. The machine raised a worried voice in protest.

“N-Now wait just a second, miss! I understand wanting to collect combat data from me, but you can’t possibly be considering putting the old chap through the same test?”

Jackass looked at the two with a menacing glare, a sinister smirk creeping across her face.

“Heh… You know, I’m all for data collection, and I sure as hell would love to know how such a small android was given weapons, which it supposedly can’t use.” Aesop continued to try to protect Autumn as the female android approached them, but to his surprise, Autumn had left the safety of his backside. The little android was now sneaking up behind Jackass, who hadn’t realized that Autumn was behind her.

“…wait where is—gah!” Jackass was only shocked for a moment when she felt something press against her back, followed by two arms wrapping around hers…or, at least, attempting to. Autumn only managed to grapple Jackass's wrists due to the height difference between the two. The female android would have easily been able to pull out of the ‘trap’, but decided against it for a more amusing option.

“You know kid, it isn’t exactly polite to just grab a girl before taking her out to dinner first.” The reaction was immediate, Autumn awkwardly released Jackass from their grip, before bowing their head in apology. Aesop made a noise that sounded like a stifled laugh, and soon enough Jackass was also laughing lightly at the display. After a brief moment of regaining his posture, Aesop looked at the female android in confusion.

“You aren’t going to ask for combat data from the old chap?” Jackass waved off the suggestion,

“Nah, I have feeling that if you manage to get that voice chip made, you’ll be coming back to me soon enough. Plus...” she looked at Autumn, “I kind of already got some data regarding your ‘old chap'”

Jackass had honestly not expected the small android to have such great stealth capabilities. Obviously, she had expected at least some stealth technology, but not enough to have dismounted from an 8 foot machine right in front of her and end up behind her without being noticed. _What was that?_

Before leaving, Autumn took another deep bow towards Jackass in apology for their earlier actions (which Jackass just waved off), and Aesop made yet another affirmation about how much the two of them were indebted to her (“I honestly cannot express….We have no way of ever truly repaying…etc.). When the time did finally come for the two to leave, Aesop and Autumn both waved goodbye, before turning towards the city ruins, on the hunt for the parts required to create the voice chip.

Jackass raised a hand to reciprocate the gesture, before she returned to her work. _I never would have expected something like that_ , the android thought to herself, _to think that a machine is still functioning after over 6000 years… And that kid……_

Jackass looked at her glove,

_……They're hiding something._

A few seconds passed before she returned to her work.

 _I never gave them my name, huh?_ Jackass thought to herself

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey look, the first familiar face in this fanfic!
> 
> Side Note: Next chapter will be a big one.


	5. Activation (Part Three)

Aesop rolled up to one of the passive machines around a small pond in the city ruins. 

“Excuse me?” he tapped lightly on the small biped's shoulder(?), causing the yellow-eyed machine to turn around.

“Ah. You are a fellow machine. But you are new. Are you looking for something?” The small machine asked. Aesop was about to ask where to find each of the parts on the list, but decided it would be more polite not to ask about where he could retrieve parts from other machines. 

“Yes, in fact. I’m looking for a good place to find metal laying around.” _That sounded pretty non-aggressive, right?_

“Ah, you would want to go to the factory then.” The machine pointed in the direction of several non-descript buildings, “It has a lot of dead and beat up machines in it. You could probably find a whole bunch of parts there.” _…I forgot how contrarian machines can be at times._

“T-Thank you very much, kind sir. I bid you good day, and good luck with…whatever you were partaking in.” The machine waved at Aesop and went back to staring off into the distance. _I suppose thinking would be what most machines do these days…_

  Aesop began moving towards the area indicated by the machine, observing the multitude of flora and fauna which had taken over the ruins of the human city. Aesop had seen many other cities with similar ecosystems, but the biology of earth never ceased to fascinate him. It was always interesting to compare machine lifeforms to the native lifeforms, observing how the two had begun to evolve alongside each other, how they had adapted to changes in the environment. Within his own lifetime, he had seen machines originally designed to drive away native species, starting symbiotic relationships with the descendants of said native species. _If only machines and androids could coexist in the same way…_

   Aesop’s thoughts were broken by the appearance of an access point, which he quickly notified Autumn about. The small android seemed to be in higher spirits ever since the run-in with the female android from earlier (Aesop had had a panic attack when he realized he never got her name), and had been taking decently less time than before, hacking into the access points. After the extraction was complete, Aesop could finally see what appeared to be a large industrial complex on the map.

“Ohohoho! This is it, old chap! The home stretch!” Aesop thrust his arm upwards,

“Soon enough, we'll enter a new era!”  
The android turned their head towards Aesop as they clambered on the machine's back.

“Of course I didn’t mean that literally, old chap! I was talking about the two of us, and…okay I’ll admit it was rather immature and moronic to make such a remark…” Aesop’s voice trailed off into a low mumble, before the machine began moving again.

   After another few minutes of travelling (and one boar attack), Aesop spoke up again.

“Say, old chap? What do you suppose will happen once we get you a voice chip? I’ve come up with several theories myself, and I’ve come to the conclusion that, out of those, you will either: a) join an android community and visit me every so often; b) go your own way, separate from myself; or c) nothing will change from our current relationship, aside from your ability to speak aloud of course.” Autumn shook their head lightly, though Aesop couldn’t see it.

“…I suppose that all of those theories may turn out wrong, old chap. We may very well have a completely unexpected outcome arise from all of this.” The old machine paused, “Though, I hope it doesn't…”

   Conversation between the two was fairly minimal after that point, both of them were focused on readying themselves for the factory, and being sure they memorized the required materials (Aesop suggested doing so to avoid them having to constantly look back to the files, since they could misplace it in such a large facility). Eventually, the sight of smoke heralded the presence of the factory, followed by the smokestacks which they originated from. Aesop slowed for a moment, he hadn’t been to the factory before; however, he couldn’t help but be at least somewhat reminded of his final memory of being on the network. It wasn’t as if Aesop actually ‘cared’ for any of his kind at the time, and he honestly still didn't. Instead, his fear was that of a trap: an ambush by machines. 

  _Of course any ambush would be relatively minor in scale_ , Aesop reasoned, _the Network here seems to either be relatively inactive or shut down entirely._ _Even so…this feeling…could it be what humans called ‘paranoia?_

   The old machine returned from his thoughts when he realised the topography of the landscape wasn’t exactly very friendly for machines like himself to easily reach the factory. Noticing a medium flyer machine in the distance, he got an idea.

…7 minutes later...

“I say! Looks like I was wrong about you, good sir! You were able to get us all the way up here!” Aesop made a gesture in mock-shock, “Colour me impressed!”

“aha...ha….ha…. I told you...I would…. be able….to carry….. you…..all the….way….” The flyer boasted as its propellers groaned, “I… think I… need…..a rest…” 

   The flyer flew off to the roof of one of the many buildings in the city and landed down hard. Chuckling lightly to himself, Aesop turned towards the huge façade of the factory, red and brown filling his vision. The old machine trundled towards the entrance, stopping just short of it before speaking to his companion.

   “This is it, old chap. Once we find get the parts we need, it will only be a matter of me putting this chip together and you installing it.” Autumn walked along Aesop’s treads until they were standing in front of the machine on the right. The android extended their right hand outwards; Aesop nodded and outstretched his, grasping the hand with his own.

   “Its been a pleasure travelling with you too, old chap.” His voice had become softer, but not necessarily weaker. Aesop needed to stay strong, both of them did. The owner of the small hand which he was holding right now, was far stronger then the small confused android he had run into all those years ago.  
_You've come a long way, old chap. **We’ve** come a long way._

     Releasing his grip from Autumn's, Aesop looked back towards the door, pressing the button next to it (after allowing Autumn to hop down from their spot on the machine's treads). As the large metal door opened, the pair advanced into the facility, heading for the elevator visible at the rear of the empty room which greeted them upon entrance.

Another button press later and the two had begun their descent into the massive labyrinth, leaving the entrance silent once again.

Less than 3 minutes later, the entrance to the factory opened…

*-*-*-*

   Autumn searched through the remains of several oddly dressed machines, they wondered why there seemed to be so many dead machines here, all of the same, unique design. The android turned to Aesop for help, who was busy rummaging through his own pile of machines. The large machine turned his head towards Autumn.

  “Hmm? Ah, sorry, old chap. I’ve been thinking the same thing myself but haven’t quite arrived at a logical explanation; however, I heavily doubt that this was done by androids.” He turned back towards the bodies of the strange machines, “This damage is rather…specific, for some of these machines. If I didn’t know any better, I would have said the machines killed both themselves and each other. Of course, such action has no logic behind it.” 

Behind their mask, Autumn frowned. They didn’t understand it; why would a machine kill themselves? Was there some other goal? The android shook the thought—there was no purpose pursuing the thought any longer than they already had—and returned to searching for parts. 

  After what Autumn guessed was roughly an hour, they had managed to find almost all the parts listed for the voice chip, and had travelled extremely rather deep into the factory, they had even encountered a few of the odd-looking machines who were still alive. They had told the pair that all of the other machines had killed each other in an attempt to ‘become as gods', following the death of their leader. Aesop was taken slightly aback by the revelation, but also came to accept it rather quickly; it was a logical conclusion, according to him. Autumn had started to feel bad for taking parts from the machines’ friends afterwards; however, Aesop told the android that all the machines had made the decision to take their life, and that they had done so believing something better waited for them after their death.

   Autumn could tell that Aesop was lying to them—at least a little—but decided that it would be better for the both of them if they returned their focus to salvaging the last few parts.

\--20 minutes later--

  “Aha! That’s the last one, old chap! Now we just need to get this thing made! Just give me a few minutes while—” Autumn didn’t hear anything past that, they had spaced out.

   The android had never anticipated this situation to come up when they had first met Aesop, not even two weeks ago had they expected this day—this moment—to occur.

   Autumn was so busy being lost in their thoughts, they didn’t even notice Aesop chuckling lightly at their dazed state.

*_*_*_*

   Normally Aesop would have decided to try and get Autumn’s attention, but he opted instead to just focus on making the voice chip instead. Leaving the android alone for a few moments, the old machine scanned through the instructions, analyzing them, reanalyzing them, and re-reanalyzing them.

Finally, he pumped one of his fists, making a small grunt of affirmation in addition.

“Right'ho! Let’s get you talking, old chap!”

   Aesop placed the parts onto a makeshift table and began constructing the object which would finalize the promise Aesop had made to the curious android all those years ago.

*-*-*-*

    After what seemed to be an eternity to Autumn, Aesop finally reappeared from the room he had moved to in order to work on the chip. The machine laughed when Autumn cast a confused glance at him.

   “Ohohoho! Old chap, you were so busy daydreaming I thought it would be better to just leave you alone so you could enjoy yourself for a bit!” Upon saying that, Aesop held out a small brown and black card, “I’ve got the hardware portion finished, the software bit’s up to you!”

   Autumn took the voice chip and opened a port in their suit to insert it into. Just as the android went to insert the chip, Aesop spoke up.

   “I'll be outside this room keeping watch, old chap. It would be pretty bad if you were caught by machines while you're in maintenance mode.” True to what he said, Aesop rolled out of the room, the door closing behind him, leaving Autumn alone to install the voice chip. With the voice chip in hand, they plugged it into the port and entered the hacking space.

 

     When Autumn's cursor appeared in the hacking space, several paths were open for access in front of them. The android moved their cursor down the path labelled ‘External Devices’, stopping at a terminal near the end of it. Autumn was used to hacking into themselves in order to preform maintenance, but they had never bothered entering the path for external hardware before, making the experience a bit of a foreign one. They entered into the terminal labelled ‘Virus Scan’, and began hacking. 

    Since Aesop had made the chip out of machine parts which hadn’t been confirmed ‘clean’, there was a chance that a virus may have inadvertently been stored on the chip. Sure enough, offensive firewalls popped up, indicating a virus. It wasn’t anything too large (Autumn had had worse occur in their own programming), but something was off. When Autumn had destroyed the core for the virus, there was a feedback. It was only for a fleeting moment, but Autumn suddenly felt like they were forgetting something. Shaking off the feeling, Autumn continued moving their cursor to the next terminal—this one labelled: Device Access. The terminal had a defensive firewall in place (mostly just to act as a first layer of defense against possible hacks) which Autumn blew through in a matter of seconds, opening a path behind the terminal. Autumn's cursor moved along the path until it reached a terminal labelled: ‘External Chip Port 1’, and entered into it to run the installation and set up sequence. 

    The set up was…different. The hacking space had become quite a bit darker, indicating certain systems weren’t functioning at optimal levels. Autumn came up to one of the four terminals existing within the chip, each one was rather simplistic, not much more than one core with little to no barrier on it. However, upon completing the third(The selection screen for finding the system which the chip will enhance), Autumn came to notice something. Something that shouldn’t have been available as a place to install to. 

  Autumn…already had a voice system installed in them, and they had never once noticed it.

    Of course there was a very likely possibility for the system to have flown under the radar, it was clearly deactivated and Autumn clearly had no direct way of accessing it during maintenance. However, something was off about that: the voice system being deactivated. Why? Why was it deactivated?  
Autumn was racking their circuits just trying to come to an answer, when they noticed something else. Something which made them finish the installation setup with much more haste. 

     There was another external device plugged in: ‘databox’. Autumn quickly backed out of the voice chip installation, knowing they only had a few minutes before the chip and the voice system would start to talk with one another. Their cursor moved to the terminal across from the chip port, prepared to hack in and…

Stopped. 

Autumn stopped.

They didn’t know why they stopped, other than they suddenly had an extremely bad feeling about something. They…didn’t know if they should go ahead with the hacking. Part of them felt like this course of action would lead to their demise, or at the very least, it would lead to their life becoming much harder. 

No, that wouldn’t happen. Even if it did , they'd have Aesop to help them. Autumn could make it through this. That thought running through their mind, the android hacked into the terminal….

 

And screamed. 

Memories. Words. Names. All of them flooding their mind too quickly for Autumn to process. The excess information was too much. The hacking space began to collapse around Autumn's cursor, and they were forcefully ejected from their mind. With the exit, Autumn's cries pierced the stale air of the factory room.

“A-…AaaaAAaaaAahhhhhhh!” Autumn's voice came out not much louder than a normal voice—not monotone, but certainly underwhelming to an outside viewer.

Autumn's voice was high-pitched and childish, which matched their appearance—aside from the armour. 

    Despite the yell not being extremely loud, Aesop rushed into the room almost immediately after. Autumn noticed the machine enter, despite the shock they were currently in, but soon realized Aesop was panicking over a different issue. 

“Get up, old chap! We’ve got company, and not the good type!” Autumn rarely heard Aesop speak this way, and whenever the machine had, it meant that he wanted to get the two of them away from wherever they were ‘ASAP'. The smaller companion tried to comply, but their legs wouldn’t move. Autumn could only croak out a pathetic sound.

“…ah….a…” the machine looked at the Autumn with bewilderment for a moment, before quickly snapping himself out of his trance and lifting his companion onto his back.

“Something activated a large swath of machines in this facility, old chap!” Aesop said as he rushed through the doors. “We need to get to the exit quickly, lest we be overwhelmed by them.” 

    Sure enough, once Aesop had made it through the maze of small chambers, the two were greeted by a large number of machine lifeforms. Some were the strange looking kind, but the vast majority were the standard un-painted metal. Small stubbies and bipeds swarmed the bridge a few levels above them, small flyers advanced towards them from seemingly all directions. Aesop quickly rationalized that there was only one viable option if he was to get himself and Autumn out of this situation. The old machine called out to Autumn in warning.

“Hang on, old chap! This might get bumpy!”

    Without further word, Aesop held his spear in front of him, and charged up the staircase.  
After the spear pierced the chest of a medium biped, it became a sort of battering ram, plowing through all other machines in its path. The stairs threatened to break as Aesop trundled over them at high speed, shaking violently; however, against the odds, they held, even if it was only as long as the old machine was on them, as they crashed down immediately after Aesop maneuvered onto the bridge towards the elevator. 

    Although Aesop's charge was able to clear a path, flyers threatened the two from behind. Autumn had finally managed to gain control over their body's functions again, and reached for the gun in their satchel. Autumn fired two shots at the nearest flyers, both of which did damage but didn’t destroy them. It wasn’t enough—Autumn needed to be able to target them better. Amongst the flurry of memories still clouding their mind, a single, fractured thought passed through. 

_—Remove the armour on the left arm._

    Without hesitation, Autumn reached for the clips on their left arm, unlocking the armour encasing it, before a placing the piece behind them and preparing to fire once again. This time, the weak points were clear, standing obvious against the rest of the flyers' bodies. Autumn fired three shots at three of the flyers—all three went down. 

*_*_*_*

Aesop had noticed the explosions behind him (as well as the much more quiet sound of Autumn’s gun going off), but was more focused on getting to the elevators. Still wanting to acknowledge Autumn he called back to them.

“Thanks a bunch, old chap! Keep up that supporting fire and we’ll be out before they can even put a scratch on us!” Aesop cast the now better machine which had been impaled by his spear over the edge of the bridge and raced to reach the set of doors leading to the elevators. The minute the doors closed behind them, Aesop destroyed the control panel on the door in an effort to keep it shut. Slowing (but not relaxing), Aesop focused his attention on Autumn.

“Right'ho! How are you holding up back there, old chap?” 

“……a…..Ah…fa..” Autumn still couldn't speak properly yet (they were still busy trying to organize their interface to enable for proper speech);however, Aesop gave a light laugh: he was still able to communicate with Autumn the same way he always had.

“You really don’t like to quit, huh old chap?” The machine approached the next set of doors and opened them. “Well, I definitely can’t say that’s necessarily a bad thing now ca—”

   Aesop was cut short by the sight in front of him: a large, empty room with a single set of illuminated doors at the end. They had passed through the room earlier, but it had been littered with the remains of machines. The old machine readied himself, holding his spear tightly. After an unspoken conversation between the two, Autumn got off of Aesop's back, holding their gun tightly. They stood practically motionless for roughly a minute before Aesop decided to speak up.

“I know you’re here,” The old machine spoke with a dark monotone, “show yourself now.”

   Almost on cue, large crashes resounded throughout the chamber, and oil began dripping from the ceiling. Sensing the enemy above him, Aesop quickly grabbed Autumn and sped forward, just barely missing being crushed by their adversary they were now turning to face.

    The machine which had just revealed itself was a strange amalgamation of goliath-class bipeds and linked sphere machines. The large arm units had been converted into legs which came out of the fused torsos of two goliath bipeds, the legs dangling from either end flailing unnaturally on either side of the two red lights of the bottom core units. The torsos of the goliaths had 3 separate chains of linked spheres coming off the centre, one of these chains possessed a drill, the other a laser, the central one had a strange, large box which Aesop had never seen before; however, it gave off a somewhat orange glow whenever it moved, leading Aesop to believe that it may be a container of molten metal. Each of the arms had a gun folded upwards on it, which Aesop theorized was likely a modification used while readying the central unit so it couldn’t be attacked easily. 

   While he was able to keep himself in a cool and collected state in the face of the monstrosity in front of him, Aesop was worried—Autumn and himself had handled a couple goliaths in the past before, but generally they hadn’t been restricted by space, nor had they ever seen one with such strange (or heavy) weaponry. Still, the old machine knew that defeating the giant in front of them could be possible—machines had never been good at making anything large without at least one weakness—no matter how difficult that feat may be. _We’ll have time to worry about that afterwards though, for now we just need to fight._

“Right’ho! Let’s see what this things made of, old chap!” Autumn nodded and started running towards their left, trying to scan for any weak points in the machine’s armour—a tactic which had served them well against goliaths in the past. Aesop opted instead to charge head on towards the monstrous machine, in an effort to direct the majority of fire towards himself. As he did, the laser on one of the chains began glowing, threatening to fire. Aesop couldn’t exactly maneuver out of the way once the laser did fire, his objective was instead to try and get at the core unit in between the two vestigial legs as quickly as he could. _Not like I need to worry about that thing anyways…_

   Just as the laser was about to release a burst of energy at the large machine rushing towards it, one of the spheres in the chain suddenly exploded, cutting off the action of the arm. This was followed by the explosion of the drill carrying chain. A yellow glow emanating from the outskirts of the chamber betrayed the cause of the explosions. Aesop took advantage of the distraction, and quickly thrust his spear at the red-eyed machine head between the legs of the goliath. Upon contact of the core contained within, the monstrosity reared up on the set of legs opposite Aesop, who used this opportunity to quickly back away from enraged machine and regroup with Autumn. The time the two had to interact was limited, Aesop needed to be sure to ask the right questions. 

“Did you find any weaknesses, old chap?” Autumn nodded, keeping their attention on the goliath who had just slammed back down onto the ground, creating a shockwave which they quickly avoided by hopping onto Aesop’s treads (the old machine was impervious to such ground-based shocks). 

“On the top you say?” Aesop looked at the large box on the central chain, which now had a yellow glow around it and appeared to be charging.

“Right’ho! I think I have a plan, old chap! I’m going to need you to take out the laser and the drill up top, then I want you to aim for that box on the center chain after I give the signal!” Autumn merely looked at him as the arms of the giant machine began to unfold their guns and started spraying bulllets.

“You worry about yourself! A few bullets aren’t going to hurt me!” that said, Aesop held his spear in front of himself defensively and charged forward once again at the machine, deflecting as many bullets as he could with his spear. Once again, the laser began to charge up, once again it was cut off. The machine had managed to turn itself around, clearly trying to defend the core Aesop had just damaged; however, Aesop wasn’t aiming for the cores on the body—they wouldn’t help him take down the goliath. Instead, he was aiming for the glowing yellow orbs which had appeared on each of the goliath’s arms. It didn’t take much effort to destroy the orbs on the left side, Aesop was able to take them out in quick succession before reversing away from the arms to focus on the right side. Aesop could tell from listening alone that the device was close to releasing its contents, and threw his spear at the furthest orb from him, destroying it. Of course, such an action was practically suicide—the amount of bullets flying through the chamber was staggering; however, Aesop needed to give Autumn an opportunity, and that meant he couldn’t waste even a single moment. Racing towards the last remaining orb, the old machine shouted at Autumn before grabbing the orb and crushing it.

“NOW, OLD CHAP!” 

 Aesop’s words spurred Autumn into action, pointing their gun towards the large box at the top of the central chain of linked spheres. They held their breath, and fired. 

*-*-*-*

   It all happened so quickly, Autumn was barely able to keep up. The box on the top of the central chain had burst open, a liquid of some kind had fallen onto to the exposed top of the machine, the machine had let out a guttural cry…Aesop had been knocked to the right side of the chamber by one of the machine’s arms, **and he wasn’t moving**. The world froze for only a second as the shock Autumn felt quickly turned into anger. Their grip tightened on the gun as they began to run at the goliath which had only now turned its attention to them. Autumn fired three shots in succession, hitting the cores of the drill chain, laser chain, and central chain, knocking them out. Their attention quickly shifted to the undamaged core between the dangling legs of the goliath. Taking aim once again, Autumn charged a shot and fired at the core, producing a similar result to what Aesop had done to the other side of the goliath. 

   In their anger however, Autumn had forgotten something—something which they only now realized as another cry rang from the huge machine above them and it reared up on its arms: Autumn wouldn’t be able to get away from the machine quickly enough to avoid the shockwave. Despite knowing the futility of their actions, Autumn ran as quickly as they could away from the goliath, only to be sent flying by the shockwave hitting them. Their body flew nearly all the way to the other side of the chamber, skidding along the floor once they landed. If it weren’t for the armour, Autumn likely would’ve died from the impact alone; despite surviving the impact however, they were no longer in any condition to fight and could only watch as the monstrous machine slowly walked towards them. 

     Was it the end? Autumn didn’t know, but they certainly felt like it probably was going to be. They just wish they weren’t so far from the only friend they still had. They wanted to be able to say something to him. _Aesop....Aesop……Aesop…._

“…A…..A……so…….” before Autumn could finish forcing out the machine’s name however, they suddenly noticed a weak point suddenly appear in the goliath’s armour…then another…then, finally the entire machine suddenly broke apart, the heat from the explosion reaching Autumn’s body shortly after. 

_What….was……….that?_

    Something—or someone—was in the room with the three of them. Autumn should have felt relieved, should have been worried about the safety of Aesop, should have been concerned with checking on the door to make sure it still worked; however, the only thing Autumn could feel right now was one thing: fear. They were terrified, something was in the room that they couldn’t discern…at the moment. Something that was able to take down a goliath with little effort. Autumn scrambled to move away from the remains of the goliath, eventually hitting the wall behind them. 

    Autumn began to pick up a form in front of them—it was an android, and they were heading towards Autumn.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, huge chapter near the end of the week!
> 
> Also the first time I've written from Autumn's perspective, so hopefully I'll be able to keep their personality consistent. 
> 
> Next chapter: things really start to kick off.


	6. A2

  Aesop’s first thought upon regaining himself was a simple one: Autumn was in danger.

   There was a white-haired android with black clothing (and very little of it) walking towards Autumn with a sword in hand. Perhaps it was just instinct that spurred it on, but Aesop found himself racing towards Autumn, grabbing his spear quickly beforehand (which ~~for the sake of plot convenience~~ was around 5 metres from his location). Aesop soon found himself pushing his spear against the sword of the female android, aggression taking him over. He couldn’t see them, but Aesop knew his eyes were glowing a fierce red at the moment.

“GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!” Aesop couldn’t control his body, he couldn’t think straight. He couldn’t care less about what the android in front of him looked like, or how she got here, or…

“…St……op…….”

 The android was strong. Despite being smaller than Aesop, she was holding her ground with only a small amount of effort. This only made Aesop angrier, only made him want to break her that much more badly…

“…Sto…p…”

  Aesop felt his own thoughts becoming more and more blurred, his mind was reverting to the way it was back when he was still on the Network. The android in front of him was a target he needed to ki—

  “STOP!” The cry made the white-haired android turn her head to the right, and it snapped Aesop back to reality, before looking the same way she was.

“….Sto…p…..Sto….p…..stop…..” Autumn’s fists were clenched, arms placed defensively over their face.

  Aesop wanted to rush to Autumn’s side, but couldn’t. The old machine’s arms fell limply to his sides, he had over-exerted himself. All he could do was watch as the white-haired android slowly made her way towards Autumn, and slowly offer her hand to them. _Wait, what?_

*-*-*-*

“Hey, you ok?” Autumn slowly moved their arms down from in front of their face—the form of the android in front of them now more clear—and turned their head upwards.

“Y…….ye………s...” Autumn was at a loss for words at the moment (not as if they had many to begin with)—an android (who they had only just met and hadn’t even given a name), had come seemingly out of nowhere to save both of them from certain death, and was now offering Autumn a hand to help them up.

“….mmh…” a small mumble came from Autumn as they lifted their left hand to grab the android's.

_...?_

   The feeling was brief, but it was enough to catch Autumn's attention. Something—something had just happened to them; the identity of said ‘something’ was unknown, and Autumn quickly dismissed it as the female android hoisted them to their feet.

*_*_*_*

   After watching the exchange between Autumn and the white-haired android transpire, Aesop finally managed to start moving again…slowly. The old machine turned to look at Autumn, who returned the gesture while still holding onto the female android’s arm.

“…I see…” Aesop spoke in a hushed whisper, before raising it to his normal volume and time.

 “I am greatly sorry, Miss, for that misunderstanding just now.” The old machine hung his head, “I acted without thinking; I should have come to the conclusion that you were the one who saved Autumn from being crushed by that... **thing**.”

  Aesop rolled up beside Autumn, who pulled themselves up onto the machine’s back and sat down. Aesop began speaking again.

“I also understand that a thanks is in order from both of us for defeating that goliath, so thank you”

“…Th……..tha……n..k……y..ou..” Autumn managed to croak out.

“Although,” Aesop paused, “Nothing can be done by us to truly repay you—or to ask for your forgiveness.” The old machine let out a small chuckle.

“Heh, that’s two androids who’ve done something for us which we can never repay.”

The white-haired android gave a Aesop a questioning look, before speaking.

“No, it’s fine really. You don’t need to get all hung up over it.” She offered a small smile to both Aesop and Autumn. Suddenly, a thought crossed the old machine’s mind.

“Ah! Again I forgot introductions!” Aesop shook his head, _Idiot!_

“I am Aesop, pleasure to make your acquaintance.”

“….A……Au…….tu……..Autumn……” the machine’s companion said quietly. The white-haired android spoke next,

 “I’m A2, at least that what I’ve been called for the last while.” She offered Aesop her hand, which he shook politely, before the android began speaking again.

“Why did you two even come here in the first place?” A2 cocked one of her eyebrows at the Aesop as the three of them began to move towards the elevator doors.

“That would be the old chap here!” Aesop motioned towards Autumn, “We came to gather parts for a voice chip; which the old chap is still getting used to, as you can see.”

Aesop suddenly straightened their head up.

“Why might you be here, miss A2?” Aesop had a pretty good guess that A2 hadn’t just stumbled across the two of them (though the goliath had been rather loud).

“I followed you here.” The answer was blunt, and caught Aesop slightly off-guard.

“I-I see…could you, um, specify the exact reason why you followed us, and from what point you were following us?” Aesop caught A2 rolling her eyes at the question, as if he should have already known the answer.

“It’s pretty hard not to notice a huge machine being lifted up by another machine, especially when there is only one of them, not 50—or a couple hundred. It’d be shocking if someone **didn’t** notice it.” A2 looked away a moment as the elevator doors closed behind the three of them; Aesop swore it was because she was smirking. “That and you certainly made quite a bit of noise while you were flying.”

“A-ah….I guess you are right on both those accounts…” If Aesop had the ability to do so, he figured he would probably be blushing at the moment. Aesop had needed to throw around quite of insults just to get the flyer to get all the way to the factory entrance, and he had needed to continuously talk in order to keep the flyer from noticing Autumn.

Aesop felt the elevator slow down and come to a stop. The three exited the box and proceeded towards the next set of elevators. Aesop brought his hand up in consideration as they moved through the factory.

“Odd, there aren’t any machines here. They were swarming the whole area where the old chap set up his voice chip.”

“I think that’s probably because the place you went to is usually sealed off, there was probably a lot of active machines in there you woke up somehow.” A2 said before shooting a look at Aesop, “Which is why I knew you had gone that way, before you ask.”

   Aesop was, in fact, about to ask that question, and since it was the only question he had been focusing on for a while, he went quiet. Eventually, when they reached the elevator to take them up to the entrance, Aesop had formulated another question—only to be cut off by Autumn.

_…..what?...are you sure?...That’s….You should probably tell her right?.....I see…if you’re that worried then I’ll keep mum about it….you should know it’s safe, old chap…No problem, old chap…._

  As the elevator slowed to a halt upon reaching the room by the entrance and the doors opened, Aesop finally spoke.

  “Excuse me, Miss A2? You wouldn’t happen to mind us accompanying you, would you?” The android looked at Aesop like he had just insulted her mother. _Androids don’t really have ‘mothers’ though._

“Tell me why I shouldn’t deny that request.” _She prefers working alone, huh…_ Aesop was about to answer A2, when—

“…P….Pl…Please……A……tw…oo…” Autumn had been mostly silent since the first elevator ride, so hearing them speak caught the attention of both Aesop and A2.

“…Au...Autumn…w…ill…do…a..any…th…ing…s...so…P…Please...” A2's mouth hung open slightly as Autumn pleaded. Aesop guessed that she was trying to figure out what to ask of Autumn, she had likely not expected such an event to occur. Eventually, she did talk, though the answer was not what Aesop had expected.

“Take off the mask.” A2 said it with a sort of gentleness Aesop couldn’t quite place, probably because he was in more shock from the request. _What?! She’s making the old chap take of the mask?_ Even Aesop had never seen underneath the mask, and the two had known each other for quite a while.

“….O….Okay……” Autumn’s acceptance of the request certainly didn’t help Aesop’s internal conflict. Slowly—carefully—Autumn began unclipping the latches around their collarbone, struggling slightly with the ones on the back. Once the unclipping was complete, they pulled up on the head portion of the mask, the carbon fiber that had been covering their neck now stretching as it pulled over the features of Autumn’s face.

   Finally, the last of the mask had been taken off. Autumn’s hair was short, straight, and brown. A small swath in front on their right was slightly longer and had been pushed back, held in place by a bobby pin. Autumn’s skin was comparable in colour to A2’s hair (though it had a tinge of colour to it), which made their thin lips pop out more, despite them only being tinted slightly pink. All of these features however, were the last thing that either Aesop or A2 noticed. They paled in comparison to Autumn’s eyes: they didn’t have any.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I bring in the first major character from the game now.
> 
> And a cliffhanger(?)
> 
> Next chapter: another familiar face will be introduced.


	7. Number 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heya! Time for another chapter, and more tags to add! 
> 
> Hopefully all of you are enjoying this fic as much as I'm enjoying writing it!

 

  Aesop and A2 stared at where Autumn’s eyes should have been. The sockets were filled with grey spheres which served as place holders. They seemed to be devoid of any light or life—unnatural in a word. It seemed that Autumn caught onto the fact that something was wrong because they quickly covered their face after several seconds had passed. Aesop spoke up first.

“Old chap, your eyes—”

“So you're blind in addition to being mute, huh, Autumn?” A2 interrupted the old machine before he could finish, “Well, I guess you would be the first I’ve heard of with both.”

The female android unraveled a portion of gauze which had been wrapped around her right arm (Aesop theorized it was from an older injury), and tore it off.

“Put your arms down.” Autumn listened and slowly removed the arms covering their face.

   A2 knelt down before pressed the gauze to Autumn’s ‘eyes’, and reaching around the back of their head and tying a simple knot. Autumn’s mouth hung open slightly: at a loss for words. A2 just seemed to chuckle a little at it.

“It would be uncomfortable for you if people looked at you judgingly just because of one little difference between you and them, right?” A2 stood up, “Especially considering you can’t tell when they’re looking or not.”

Autumn just nodded slightly before offering the android a small smile.

“…th…thank……you……A…….2…..” they said in a soft voice.

Aesop (who had been quietly observing these events play out) let out a hearty laugh.

“Ohohoho! That’s the old chap I know!” Aesop began turning towards the entrance door, “Now then, it’s time for us to begin a brand new--W-WHAT IS THIS?!?!”

The space around the panel had been torn up, the gears operating the doors had a large metal pole stuck between them, preventing them from opening. Aesop looked back at A2, who scratched the back of her head. _Is she even more reckless than I first thought?_

“Ah, sorry about that. Needed to keep someone from following me in here…” the female android let out an exasperated sigh, before grabbing the pole (which Aesop had only now realized was a spear) and tearing it out from between the gears. Much to the shock of all the occupants in the room—besides A2 (who had a rather annoyed expression on her face)—the entrance doors opened immediately after the white-haired android removed the spear, revealing a shorter, black-haired, male android (wearing what Aesop had to assume was a visor, as it matched the rest of their uniform and therefore was unlikely to be a blindfold, unless of course there was some new android cult) who clearly looked a bit shocked as well, but also angry.

“What was that for A2?” the black-haired android asked crossly, “Anemone said that we were supposed to watch each other's ba—mmf!!!”

“Yeah, yeah I get it 4S, ‘don’t leave your partners side’ and all that other crap” A2 had placed her left hand over the smaller androids mouth, an irritated expression clearly visible on her face. The male pulled A2's arm away, clearly equally annoyed.

“You don’t just tell someone that you need to ‘check up on something’, and then run off in the completely opposite direction from where we were heading! Seriously, A2! You needs to learn to rely on your partner more! If you had just told me what you were doing, I probably would have gone ahead with you!” 4S only now realized that Aesop and Autumn were standing in the doorway, looking slightly uncomfortable with the situation.

“Are you two the ones she followed?” the android’s voice had calmed down slightly.

“Ah, I believe we would be.” Aesop prepared himself as best he could for an introduction. “ My name is Aesop, and the old chap beside me here is Autumn.”

“…H…hel…lo…”Autumn waved weakly at 4S with a small smile. The male android nodded at them before shifting their attention back to A2.

“So, why did you follow them?” 4S' tone had become slightly softer, and his face had relaxed as well.

“You mean you didn’t see that big guy getting a lift up here?” A2 cocked an eyebrow, “Aren’t you supposed to be the scanner here?”

A2 poked the shorter androids forehead, causing 4S to blush slightly.

“That’s…I-I was busy looking over some data, okay?” A2 removed her finger from its place on the male android’s face.

“Alright then I guess we can it even then, huh?” a smirk had appeared on A2's face, “You weren’t paying attention to your surroundings and I ran off on you; seems like fair grounds for forgiveness to me.”

“No, it isn’t!” 4S’ fists clenched, “You went into an area infested with machine lifeforms, and did so without support. You could have died, A2!”

The scanner took a deep breath, and continued—calmer this time.

“You know there’s nothing to fall back on if you die, right?” 4S placed a hand on his chest, “That goes for both of us…”

A2 stared at the black-haired android with widened eyes, before allowing a small grin to creep over her face and her eyes to soften.

“Alright, I get it,” A2 ruffled 4S' hair, “I just need to drag you with me next time right?”  
The shorter android gave a look of confusion.

“Huh? No, that’s not—hey!” A2 had taken advantage of the scanner’s lowered guard and now had him in a headlock.

“You did say we needed to stick together, right **partner**?” the woman ruffled 4S' hair lightly with her fist.

“Y-Yes I did, A2!” although A2 clearly wasn’t trying to harm him, it was obvious even to Aesop that he was still having problems breathing in his position “So…could you please let me go now?”

The white-haired android obeyed and relinquished their grip from 4S. Who's attention now turned back to Aesop and Autumn.

“So are you two going to be on your way now?” 4S asked, causing the woman standing next to him to rub the back of her head.

“Actually, good sir, we are going to be travelling with you for the time being. Your partner already agreed to it.” Aesop said this cautiously, understanding that the android may not be able to handle much more stress than they already had. 4S turned to A2, who in turn nodded her head to confirm. The male android let out a sigh (not an exhausted one, Aesop noted) before facing the pair once again.

“I guess there’s no harm in it, A2 usually has better judgment about these sorts of things than I do honestly.” The scanner gave the two of them a smile, “ I haven’t really introduced myself formally yet but, I’m 4S; currently, I’m A2's partner during missions given to us by the Resistance. I hope we can get along well.”

“…N…nice…to….meet….you…” Autumn bowed their head slightly, before climbing back onto Aesop.

“…Yes, indeed, old chap!” the old machine began “we should all set off now! Wouldn’t want to stall the mission you two have any longer, yes?”

4S raised his hand to his chin and spoke.  
“Mmh, we had a few things that needed doing but—”

“But, we’ve completed the majority of the jobs we accepted, so a break will be fine.” A2 interrupted.

“Huh? But we sti—oof!” A2 nudged the scanner in the side, silencing him.

“We should head to the Resistance camp, hopefully Anemone will be fine with you hanging around, Autumn.” The white and black haired androids both turned to leave the factory, but stopped when they realized Aesop wasn’t moving.

“Something wrong there, Aesop?” A2 asked

“O-ohoho! It would seem that I can’t exactly get myself down easily without putting the old chap here in possible danger…” the old machine scratched his head, “Hate to trouble you, Miss A2, but would you mind carrying them from here?”

   Autumn peeked around from the machine's back, a concerned expression on their face.

“Seriously, old chap! I’ve already told you I'll be fine!” Aesop patted their companion on the head as they clambered off the machine.

“Besides, you need to rest up anyways.”  
Aesop watched as Autumn slowly walked over to A2, who was kneeling down to allow them to get on her back. Autumn looked back one last time and waved at their machine companion before climbing onto the white-haired android's back, wrapping their arms around her neck and resting their head on her right shoulder. A2 stood up, arms wrapped underneath Autumn's legs, and gave a small wave (as best she could at least) to Aesop, before heading off with 4S down the small ramp away from the factory—leaving Aesop to himself.

The old machine looked over at the tips of the buildings in the distance.

_Well then, time to get busy…_

*-*-*-*

_Sleepy…_

   That was Autumn’s first thought after A2 began carrying them. This was later followed by the realization of how soft the female android's hair felt, then the realization of her breathing, of her black box whirring—of how scared they were of her, of how deadly she was, how easily she could kill them if she wanted.

_What's…wrong with…Me?_

_Why…?_

_Why….is she?_

_Did I…?_

_I….need to…_

“….tumn…”

_She….deserves to….know…_

“…Autumn?” A2's voice jerked Autumn from their thoughts.

“…mmh….?” Autumn lifted their head slightly.

“Are you okay?”  Autumn couldn’t see the female android’s face, but her voice had a hint of concern in it.

“You haven’t been responding to us for the last 5 minutes…” a male voice (which Autumn quickly placed as 4S') said, “A2's had to answer the majority of questions I’ve been asking for you.”

“…S…sorry…” Autumn turned their head towards 4S' voice.

“Its fine, Autumn, we just got a bit worried after a while.” Autumn could make out 4S shaking his arm, but not much else.

“….Ques…tion….?” A2 looked back at Autumn as they spoke quietly by her ear.

“Oh, 4S wanted to know what you were a part of before now.” _…what…?_ 4S spoke next.

“I was just curious since your armour looks like it’s YoRHa, but I don’t remember ever seeing or hearing about a model like you.” _...No….I'm…….not……ready…._ “ And I also noticed that you have a black box signal just like YoRHa.”

“……….” A2 took Autumn’s silence as a cue to drop the topic

“You don’t need to answer yet if you’re not comfortable with telling us, Autumn.” Autumn felt A2’s head turn away from them, “Anyhow, we're almost at the Resistance camp, so don’t go falling asleep on us okay?”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 4S/A2 is best ship. 
> 
>  
> 
> (2B/9S still OTP tho)


	8. Revelations at the Resistance

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, time for a new chapter! Another fairly large one at that.

 

“…Haa...Haa…..haa…” A medium flyer landed with a crash on the grass; next to them was the tall figure of a brownish machine.

“My goodness! Are you alright, good sir?!” Aesop had managed to once again coax a machine into flying him down from the factory, this time using greed as a method—by saying how horrible it was that he couldn’t fly and get down to where the “greatest treasure” was—which worked like a charm.

“Anyways, good sir, the treasure is right—oh…” The machine’s eyes had gone dark, indicating they had entered sleep mode.

“Well that does make my job a bit easier, so I can’t complain.”  
Aesop began rolling away from the body of the medium flyer, focusing on the weak signal given off by Autumn. It was something Aesop had only done once before, back when the two of them had entered a maze and had needed to keep track of where the other was.

    The signal was given off by what Autumn had told Aesop was ‘black box’, which was apparently a bit like a machine core, but for androids. At the end of that ordeal, Aesop had had to grab Autumn and run away as fast as possible away from a huge boulder-shaped machine. _Good times…_

   Aesop drew himself away from the memories and continued to follow the signal of his companion. The signal, amazingly enough, was moving in roughly the same direction as Aesop and Autumn had in order to go to the factory. _Perhaps they’ll be over by the pond?_ _There seemed to be some newer installments by the buildings over in that area, perhaps I’ll go there for a rendezvous?_ The old machine trundled towards the location he approximated, and surely enough, ended up meeting the other three.

“Ohohoho! Looks like I beat the old chap to it!” Autumn perked their head up from their resting spot on A2’s shoulder, before giving a small smile. _Was it comfortable old chap?_

   The machine's partner started blushing and hid themselves behind A2's hair. Causing the female to raise an eyebrow.

“Hmm?” the woman turned her head towards Autumn, before making a dismissive grunt. The female android focussed her attention back on Aesop. “How’d you figure out to go here?”

“A guess mostly, miss A2.” The old machine pointed towards the brownish metal structures at the sides of buildings. “This is unlikely to be machine-made, and stands out from it's—”

“Okay, I get it.” If A2 had had the ability to use her arms, she would have probably been rubbing her temples. “You don’t need to go into a lecture just to prove your answer.”

“Ah, my apologies, miss—”

“And would you please stop calling me ‘miss’? It’s insanely annoying.” A2 glared at Aesop until the machine nodded, at which point she let out a sigh. “Thank you.”

   The woman turned towards the small alleyway leading into the camp, and began heading into it, followed closely by 4S. Aesop was also about to follow, but was stopped by the scanner, who held out his hand. 

“You shouldn’t come in, Aesop.” 4S said, “Although we don’t especially mind you coming in, a lot of the Resistance members here will. On top of that…” The scanner looked over Aesop's body before scratching the back of his head. “ You’re a bit too big to fit in the camp.” 

“Ah, I understand perfectly fine, 4S.” Aesop nodded and began turning back towards the pond. “ I’ll wait here until you come out.”

   4S was about to turn around and head into the camp, when Aesop called out to him again.

“Be sure to look after the old chap for me! And good luck with the miss!”

+=+=+=+

   4S' mouth fell open at Aesop's last comment, _Wh—what was that for? Does he think I have a crush on—_ the boy was brought back to his senses by A2 leaning over his shoulder.

“Gah!” the black-haired boy jumped, “ D-don’t startle me like that, A2!”

    The female android raised an eyebrow, the small android she was carrying furrowed their brow in an expression of worry.

“…Hmmm…” A2 looked over 4S' face, _S-So close!_

“....f…four....Ess….okay…?” Autumn’s quiet voice only barely registered over the sound of the scanner's own black box whirring heavily. 

“I don’t know, Autumn.” A smirk had begun to spread over the woman's face, “He either has a really bad fever, or he’s embarrassed that a girl's standing this close to him.” 

    Only then did 4S notice how hot his face felt, _why me?_ To an outside viewer this would have been seen as no more than a petty bout of teasing; to the scanner however, it was a major setback. 

_“Until further notice, I want you two working on missions together.”_

_“What?” A2 cast a death glare at Anemone, while 4S simply stood in shock, eyes wide behind his visor._

_“You heard me, recently there have been reports that more dangerous machine lifeforms have started popping up, throughout the city.” Anemone let out a small sigh, “We can’t afford to lose either of you, and…I don’t want to lose you again, Number Two.”_

_“I’ll go wait outside the camp, ma’am.” The old android gave a nod of approval, and 4S removed himself from the area around Anemone's desk, before he began walking to the entrance of the camp._

_He waited for around 10 minutes (watching some of the small machines play ‘tag’ with each other), before spotting A2 also exit the camp. He walked up beside her._

_“A2—mmf!” the woman’s expression was clearly one of annoyance, as she covered the scanner’s mouth with her hand (simultaneously keeping him at arm's length away), and gave what 4S thought was the scariest smile he had ever seen in his life._

_“Listen, I’m not exactly happy about this arrangement, but Anemone's too good with words sometimes.” She opened up her eyes slightly and leaned in closer, “She says we're supposed to be equals in this… **partnership**. I want to make something clear: if you pull the stunt that you did the last time we worked together, there will be hell to pay.”_

_A2 removed her hand from the boy's mouth and turned in the direction of the crater. When she spoke again, her voice was a bit quieter—but no less harsh._

_“Let’s go.”_

_“U-understood.”_

  A2 had apparently been in a bad mood that day (apparently it had a lot to do with the mission Anemone had given her beforehand), and the two got along fine every day after that, in fact the last major argument they had had was today at the factory; however, the situation 4S was currently in was much worse.

“I-I'm fine, don’t worry about it.” He said quietly, noticing the smirk on A2's lips falter, before she moved away from the scanner and started heading back towards camp.

“Let’s go.” 

_Let’s go_

    The boy kept himself from saying ‘Understood’, but only because A2 had said not to since it annoyed her. 4S felt a pit in his gut forming, _I didn’t do anything wrong just now, right?_

_Then why did she make that face?_

_Why did she make that face?_

    4S shook the thought aside and caught up with A2.

*-*-*-*

    Autumn couldn’t see the faces, nor did they have an idea how many androids were in the camp; but for some reason or another, Autumn could feel their gazes—watching, judging. Autumn tucked their head in towards A2 to hide it as best they could. It didn’t provide much protection, but—

_…But…what…?_

     Autumn felt more at peace when they were next to A2, certainly more than they had when Aesop had been carrying them out of the factory. 

_…why….?...why A2?...why didn’t…it feel…the same…before?_

Autumn had felt more at ease when they were with Aesop before meeting A2, so why—

_No…can’t overthink…need to…wait…_

    Autumn put their thoughts aside and focused on the android directly in front of A2.

“Hmm? Number 2, 4S, you’re back early.” The voice was a woman's, slightly deeper than A2's. She was also more heavily clothed than the female android carrying Autumn, and (from what Autumn could tell) was also slightly taller—though this took a while for them to figure out). “Who’s this?”

“…” Autumn didn’t respond.

“I—we found them in the abandoned factory, they were about to be killed by a goliath.” A2 moved her right elbow in a jerking motion. If Autumn had been able to see, they would have noticed A2 had elbowed 4S in the gut for making a face of confusion for saying ‘we’. The woman in front of them stood silent for a few moments, before finally speaking. 

“And do you know where they came from before you found them in the factory?” Silence, the hair brushing slightly against Autumn’s neck indicated A2 was shaking her head slightly. The other android’s became angrier. “So you’re telling me you went to the factory—which was the complete opposite direction from where you were supposed to go—for the sake of what I can only guess is sightseeing, and somehow ended up finding an android who you don’t even know the name—”

“…Autumn...” their voice was quiet, but it was still enough to make the female android in front of them stop talking.

“It's Autumn, huh?” The android paused for a moment, probably to try and be polite (at least that was what Aesop had always told Autumn was the case whenever people met for the first time). “My name is Anemone, I'm the leader of the Resistance. Pleasure to meet you.”

“….Nice to….meet you….too….” Autumn’s voice had become a little less quiet, and a ghost of a smile had appeared on their face. _…Ane…mone….is a….pretty name…_

“O-oh, I see…T-Thank you, Autumn.” Autumn suddenly went stiff and hid their head, a look of embarrassment crossed their face upon realizing they had thought aloud. 

 “Really?” A2's voice rang through Autumn's left ear, “Okay, 4S, whenever we want to get away with something we just need to compliment her!”

“A-A2, I don’t really think were in a position to be doing things like that…” 4S' voice was hushed, “ Also I don’t think that will—” 

“You agree to help out around the camp, Autumn?” Anemone's words made the aforementioned perk their head up and nod enthusiastically. “Good. Alright, I’ll talk to you two later. Be sure to give the android some rest, they look like they need it badly.” 

“Understood, ma'am.” 

“Alright.”  
A2 and 4S spoke in sync, and Autumn could almost hear a chuckle coming from Anemone. After they said goodbyes, the three began moving towards what Autumn was able to discern as a building with many doors on it. 

“…Apartment…?” Autumn had heard Aesop use the word many times before, they knew it was pretty much a tiny house that humans used to live in, but not much else. 

“I guess you could call them that,” 4S said, “Although our rooms are a bit more simple than a standard human apartment.”

“…A2…4S…share room…?” Autumn asked innocently as they all stopped in front of one of the doors.

“W-well, yes. We do now at least, ever since Anemone partnered us together.” 4S’ answer made Autumn furrow their brow.

“…Only….two beds….?” Autumn didn’t want to intrude on either of them, it wasn’t polite—at least according to Aesop.

“Don’t worry about it, Autumn. 4S is more than happy to use a bedroll instead.” A2 told Autumn, causing the scanner standing next to them to move in protest.

“Huh? But—aaa…” Autumn couldn’t exactly tell what was happening, but A2 had definitely moved her left hand up. And whatever she was doing had made 4S go mum. 

“You’re more than happy right?” A2's voice had a slight darkness to it as she spoke.

“Y-yes, A2…” 4S went ahead and unlocked the door. 

+×+×+×+

    A2 carried Autumn into the lodging and gently placed them down on what was normally 4S' bed, they looked up at her.

“….help with….suit…please…?” Autumn pointed at the clips on their backs, holding together the container in which the small android resided since she first met them. 

“Sure,” she motioned for 4S to help her, before being quickly dismissed by Autumn.

“…Autumn will….take off…suit…only needs….help with….back clips...” The little android made a gesture to the drawers on the other side of the room. “…can…Autumn have…clothes…?” 

“Sure thing.” 4S replied before reaching into the drawer and retrieving a set of simple brownish-black shirt and pants, both of which were too big. “Try these on after you get out of the suit.”

“…Thank you…” A2 pressed the last of the clips on Autumn’s back. “…You can… go now…Autumn can…do rest…” 

“Alright then, tell us when you’re done okay?” A2 rubbed the small android’s head, and gave a smile, _I guess they can’t see it though, huh?_

   After the male and female androids had left Autumn to get changed, 4S turned to A2.

“Hey, A2?” 

“Hm?” A2 looked at 4S with a curious expression, one that she rarely gave recently. “What is it?”

“You know how Autumn can’t see because they don’t have eyes?” _Oh no_ , A2 already knew where this conversation was going, and she could tell from how the scanner was asking that he had confidence in winning this argument. “I was thinking maybe we could look for some parts with Aesop tomorrow to build them a proper set of eyes?” 

“You already know what my answer to that is.” A2 sighed as she spoke, and her worst fear became realised once she saw 4S' expression. 

“Finding parts for an eye isn’t that hard you know? Plus, there’s already a contract out there for someone who needs an eye replacement, so why don’t we just collect a few extra resources, and have Pascal make three instead of one? We'll have an extra helping hand too.” As easy as it was at times to make the scanner embarrassed, A2 couldn’t deny that 4S was very good at making logical arguments to doing things that seemed like a waste of time. She couldn’t fault him on that front at least. _However, he does seem pretty desperate._

“Alright, fine.” A2 sighed, before a sly look crossed her face. “But no wearing that visor of yours from now on, got it?” 

“Huh?” Bull’s-eye “B-but what if a situation comes up where it’ll be re—” 

“You do realize Aesop can do most of that scanning stuff right? Plus you'll be closer to my level.” A2 smirked. “Well not in height, but you catch my drift”

“Unde—I got it, do you want me taking the visor off now?” 4S gave a sigh.

“No, you don’t have to until tomorrow, but I expect it to be gone by the time we leave the camp.” A noise came from within the bedroom. “Sounds like Autumn's done, come on.” 

   With that the A2 opened the door, revealing Autumn’s armoured suit stored neatly beside the bed, and an Autumn who looked even smaller than before. The pants they were wearing draped well below their feet, and their hands stopped in roughly the same place where A2's elbows may have stopped if she were wearing it. The small android waved at the two of them from their seat on the bed. 

“…Comfy…!” A wide smile had appeared on Autumn’s face, “…Autumn can…sleep better… now…!” 

“Speaking of sleep, shouldn’t you be starting to rest about now?” 4S asked from behind A2. “I know you rested most of the way here but your systems are probably still in shock from that attack.” 

“…Autumn knows… sleep soon…” the small android pulled their legs onto the bed and lied down. “…A2…?”

“Yah, Autumn?” 

“…could A2…get…long stick…for seeing…?” A stick for walking?

“You mean a probing cane, Autumn?” 4S answered shortly after Autumn asked, “I can probably make one for you, I’ll leave it by your armour when A2 and I come back to rest.”

“…Thank you…” with those words the small android fell silent, asleep.

A2 turned around and began heading out the door, with 4S quickly following suit.

_Sweet dreams, Autumn._

*-*-*-*

“ _Hey there…! I'm…I’ll be your supervisor from now on!”_

The events faded in, played, faded out.

_“You need to be more careful…! You could have died back there!”_

Some distorted, some warped.

_“why ArE YOu dOinG thESe thIngs to…?!?”_

They had replayed themselves in different orders.

_“Good morning, … I'll be your operator from this point onwards.”_

But they always ended the same.

  _The explosion made them whip around, and the sight which greeted them froze them in place: The lab was on fire. Even though the distance between them and the blaze was huge, fear began to overtake them. More explosions resounded from different portions of the facility. …began to fall deeper and deeper into terror—_

   Autumn woke up with a start. They moved their left arm around, _Still A2's room…_ Turning their focus other bed, Autumn noticed A2 was sleeping. As they turned to get off of the bed they noticed 4S tucked away on a bedroll near the head of Autumn’s bed. Autumn slipped quietly onto the floor and began walking towards A2. _Now…I’ll tell her now…I can do it now…_

    Once they had reached the edge of the bed, Autumn reached their hand out for A2’s head.

+×+×+×+

   A2 opened her eyes slightly, a hand was reaching towards her. _Autumn?_

   She suddenly found herself in a hacking space, not as a cursor, but as a projection of her own appearance. _What?_

“Sorry for hacking into you A2…” Autumn’s quiet voice came from behind the woman. “I just…I just wanted to…talk with you…”

    A2 turned around to face the small android. Autumn looked much the same as they did when she last saw them. 

“It's something private I’m guessing?” the woman took a step towards Autumn, “Shoot.”

“Eh?!?” the little android gave an expression of shock.

“It's just a saying, Autumn.” A2 laughed a little, _Their innocence is pretty funny, sometimes_. “Tell me what you wanted to say.” 

“O-oh….Okay, then…” Autumn took a deep breath before speaking again, “A2…you may have already realized this…but I’m not a normal android…”

“Yeah, kind of figured—not only did you not have a voice, but you also don’t have eyes. That alone is enough to make me think something’s up. Plus you were still able to fight a goliath despite all that.”

“…I suppose that would be true…but it’s a bit more complex than that…I would have told you earlier…but…” Autumn looked at the ground, “….I was still trying to come to terms with….the truth, myself….

The android took a deep breath.

“A2....my actual name isn’t Autumn…..its 1-37X….variety 1, number 37, experimental unit….” 

    The revelation hit A2 more so due to the numbers and designation she didn’t recognize than anything else. Autumn continued talking.

“…I was built for the sake of testing various tools and weapons...many of which were too be used by the Army of Humanity….my variety focussed on honing the sense of touch on androids…I am able to fight machines thanks to my arm….it gives me readings on which parts of the machine are weakest…there used to be others....but, the facility which I was built in…” the small android paused, their mouth forming a grimace. “….it was destroyed by another X model……I left on a field mission a few days before it happened……..for all I know………there aren’t ………any more……of……..my…..kind…..” 

   The hacking space collapsed, leaving A2 in the same position she was in before being forced into the hacking space. She looked over the edge of the bed, Autumn was crumpled on the floor, fingers digging harshly at their hair, their hands covering their blindfolded eyes. A2 got down from the bed and placed a hand on Autumn’s left shoulder. _What? Why’s it so hot?_

“Hey, are you okay, Autumn?” the small android turned their head up slightly, before nodding slowly.

“….func…tion..al…..unit……over…heat…ed…” Autumn's words sounded forced, almost painful. “…..couldn’t…keep….hack…ing…space…..” 

  _Functional unit?_ A2’s attention was brought back to the heat in her right hand, _Their arm?_

“You need to rest, Autumn.” The female android picked Autumn up in her arms, and walked them over to the other bed, placing them gently down onto the mattress. “4S and I have stuff we need to do outside the camp when we wake up, so be sure to ask Anemone what you can do to help out around the camp when you wake up, okay?” 

A2 was about to go back to bed, when she felt a hand pull down on the cloth on her back. 

“…..Don’t…..go…..for….too…long…please….A….2…” Autumn’s voice wasn’t much more than a whisper, but the desperation in it was clearly audible. The female android put her hand in their hair and gave a soft smile. 

“Don't worry, I’ll try to be back as soon as I can be.” A2 leaned down and spoke quietly into Autumn's ear, “It also doesn’t matter to me whether or not you’re an experimental android, you’re still Autumn to me.”

The small android's mouth fell open slightly, before closing to form a thankful smile. A2 removed her hand from its place on

Autumn's head, waited for them to go still, and returned to her bed.

*-*-*-*

_I….couldn’t…tell you..._

_Why….why did it have to…._

_Why..._

**_Why…do I—_ **

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And Autumn's identity is revealed!
> 
> So, to answer the question you asked indirectly Dreamfang, Autumn isn't part of YoRHa.


	9. Ocular Opportunity

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Victoria Day! (For those of you living in Canada, and Britain)
> 
> Time for another chapter!

_“GRAAA!” the cries of one of the androids in the clearing rang over the sound metal being cut—of sparks flying. Oil from the defeated machines splashed near a row of powered down human-built machines, catching fire and illuminating the grey skin of the metal giants. Aesop stayed deathly still, despite how dangerously close the burning fire was. The machines no longer knew where he was, it had been roughly a century since his disconnection from the network, the stalemate between the machines and the androids which had existed prior his disconnection was now gone; replaced by a much bloodier war, and a far more terrifying one._

_Fear._

_It was a strange emotion, the only one Aesop had possessed for the past century or so. No proper thought had occurred in his mind (he hadn’t even adapted the idea of gender yet), all that existed was fear. Years worth of it. It ate away at the machine, like a parasite he couldn’t get rid of._

_And yet, it kept him alive in this moment; while both his former allies, and eternal enemies fought here. The fight lasted only a few more minutes—though, to Aesop it felt like several hours—with the androids succeeding in the end._

_“Let's move,” the tall one said, their partners nodded and hurried past Aesop’s location. The minute they had, the large machine scrambled to leave the facility—racing as fast as his treads could carry him. When he finally made it to the lit doorway, he suddenly realized something: there was nothing for him in this direction. It was then that he first felt his next new emotion: Anger._

“Aesop, you in there?” someone was bashing the old machine in the head. Aesop booted up his visual systems, and turned his head in the direction the hits were coming from. It was A2.

“Finally, you’re up.” An annoyed expression crossed the android's face, “We need you to help us get the parts to build three android eyes.”

 _Eyes?_ The realization dawned on Aesop within a matter of minutes.

“For the old chap?” the old machine couldn’t help but allow the excitement in his voice escape. A2 nodded. “Well then, where to?”

   It was only then that Aesop noticed 4S, who was acting a bit more shy than when the old machine last saw him. The scanner no longer had the visor tied around his head, revealing his green eyes. As A2 dismounted Aesop's treads, the old machine gave a thumbs up to the scanner. Upon which 4S looked away.

“ First up we need to grab some tri-coloured and quad-coloured cables from the amusement park, Then we’ll need to grab the ingredients to make eye lubricant, and then we just need a bunch of spare materials to give to Pascal.” 4S told Aesop.

“Excuse me , 4S. What do you mean by ‘just a bunch of spare materials’?” the response Aesop got was that the scanner would handle the collection of the materials.  
The collection of the coloured cables was easy enough, although when Aesop asked why there was a huge pile of rubble in the centre of the amusement park, he was met with silence from both the androids. His intuition told him it was wise not to pry any further.

   The collection of the eye lubricant ingredients was probably the hardest step, requiring the three to go to the desert and back to the factory where they first met. During the process of walking around, A2 picked on 4S in order to fight off her boredom.

“Hey, 4S.” The older android practically deadpanned.

“What is it, A2?” the scanner turned his head to face her only for the attacker to have jumped to the other side of him. “Huh?”

“Boo.” A2 was inches away from the scanner's face, the reaction she got out of him made even Aesop laugh.

“WAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!” 4S jumped up and stumbled, the only thing saving him from hitting his rump on the ground being A2's lightning fast grab to his arms. “Geez! Why did you do that, A2?”

“No reason.” The woman smirked, and reduced her voice to a whisper on the next comment “.. (You were pretty cute when you yelped  there, though.)”

“Huh? What did you say, A2?” 4S re-oriented himself and gave the older android an inquisitive look.

“Nothing.” _I suppose I shouldn’t tell 4S what I heard,_ Aesop thought to himself, _wouldn’t want to have to deal with an angry A2._

   Finally, they had gathered the remainder of the materials, and set off for Pascal's Village. Aesop had asked earlier who Pascal was, and was told he was a machine who detested violence of any form. Apparently, he had also had his memory erased following the loss of his previous village (which Aesop presumed A2 had something to do with, given her silence during the exchange of this information). According to 4S, before A2 had met Pascal, she had killed any and all machines she could. _I should be thankful to this Pascal fellow,_ Aesop thought to himself, _he is likely the reason why I survived my first meeting with A2._  
   

    After walking some distance across a path branching off from the amusement park, a village came into view, with two medium bipeds standing guard at the entrance, their eyes green.

    “Ah, it is A2 and 4S.” The rightmost guard said, before looking up at Aesop, who barely fit onto the bridge. “Are you their friend?”

    “Indeed I am, good sir! I’m carrying the required supplies for producing some optical units.” The old machine was busy trying to push his treads inwards, hoping to prevent an accident from occurring as he traversed the bridge.

      “Do not worry about breaking the bridge, it has held larger.” The left guard said to Aesop.

     “Thank you, good sir.” The old machine trundled along the bridge leading into the village. The minute A2 entered the village, several small machines began crowding her.

“Big sis is back!”

“Play with us big sis!”

“Hey hey let’s play!”

“I just want a hug…”a small armless machine said.

A2 bent down and wrapped all of the machines into hugs. 4S stood away from the group, smiling. Aesop approached the scanner.

“Are these machines children?” 4S nodded before answering the question Aesop was about to ask next.

“A2 those ones with black markings she saved from the forest kingdom. The ones who are pure brown are originally from the city. The one with the little bit of grey on his head came from the flooded city. The little guy right there she found alone in the middle of the desert, crying.” 4S' smile faltered for a moment, as if reminiscing about something. Aesop wanted to ask more, but decided now was not the time to pry, and he focussed his attention back on A2 and the machines.

“Hey, big sis! Let’s have a race! I’ve gotten faster since you last visited!” one of the former forest machines boasted. _Odd, given that he’s a stubby._

“My mom wanted to give you this as thanks for last time!” another machine from the city held out a small crown of flowers, which they placed on A2's head. _I wonder what that would have been for?_

“I’m just happy to see you again…” the small armless one said to A2, from which she gave it a smile. _That’s the one from the desert, right? Perhaps I should inquire about that incident later…_

Eventually, A2 spoke up over the crowding machines.

“I’m sorry, you guys, I can’t play with you right now.” She gave them all an apologetic look. “I have to go see your Uncle Pascal. There’s a friend who needs my help right now. I promise I’ll play with you later though, Okay?”

“Awww!”

“You have to play with us extra long next time, then!”

“I hope you come back soon…”

A2 smiled at the children.

“Don’t worry I will!” On those words, the children dispersed, heading to different areas of the village to play. The female android turned back to look at Aesop and 4S, who were staring blankly, and with a slight smirk, respectively. “Aesop, what are you standing around for? Four, stop with the grin.”  
The nickname was enough to make the scanner sputter and blush, wiping the grin from their face. Aesop noticed an older-looking machine landing down on the bridge behind A2. The woman turned around to face them, and pulled the machine into an embrace. (Or at least the most she was able to accomplish)

“Hey, Pascal. Been a while.” A2 retracted from the hug.

“Indeed it has been, A2.” The machine's voice was cheery, welcoming. Pascal looked over at 4S and Aesop. “Oh, hello again 4S, and…who is this?”

“I would be Aesop—pleasure to make your acquaintance, Pascal.” The larger machine stuck his hand out, which Pascal shook. 4S waved at the village leader and walked up to A2's side. “Its quite a surprise to see there are still models like yourself around. I thought they had discontinued your kind.”

“I would say the same for yourself, but I don’t recognize your model.” Pascal paused for a moment, before shaking his head. “We shouldn’t worry about what has already happened. I assume you came because you needed something built?”

“Ah, yes. We are in need of three android eye replacements.” Aesop reached for his spear and pulled up out a large bag of the materials they had gathered. “Two of them are for a friend.”

“Oh, I see. I’ll see what I can do. You three wait around here while I get to work.” With that Pascal took off. 4S shook his head.

“I don’t know how you can get used to that A2.” The scanner said, “For that matter, how are you not fazed by that, Aesop?”

“Ohohoho! I’ve seen far larger ground-based models fly off like that before!” Aesop rubbed the back of his head, “Though, most off them were destroyed when I was still connected to the network.”

A2 began walking off towards the a group of child machines—likely to play with them—and 4S followed close behind. _These machines are all disconnected from the network too._ Aesop theorized that Pascal had been the one who assisted all of these machines in their ejection from the network. _Perhaps, this will allow them better coexist with androids._ Aesop’s mind began drifting, as he tuned into the sounds of the trees, and of nature surrounding him. _Soon, Autumn._

*-*-*-*

   Complete darkness enveloped Autumn as they awoke; the initial panic subsiding after remembering that their functional unit had shut down a few hours earlier. Autumn's functional unit was the only way they had to visualize their surroundings without physically touching them, it used a multitude of different sensors to analyze any physical objects around them; it could also provide feedback on thickness, and density if conditions were right. Unfortunately, it also needed to be shut off every 40 hours or so to prevent overheating, after which it would need to cool down for roughly 8-10 hours.

   Autumn had slept through only 3 of those, but they needed to help out Anemone. So, Autumn fumbled around for the probing cane 4S had gotten them with their right hand, the smooth surface alerting itself to the experimental unit's nerves. _Alright…got it…._

    Slowly, but surely, Autumn made their way towards the door, using the cane to keep them from stubbing their toes on the tables in the room. The minute the cane hit a portion of the wall which had a groove at the bottom, Autumn painfully lifted their left arm onto the door handle to open it. The sound of tinkering and androids talking could be heard the minute it opened. Autumn stumbled out awkwardly, tightening the grip on the walking stick as they did. The mental image of this area was still fresh in their mind, so Autumn was able to leave the flats fairly easily. _Have to see Anemone…_

The area in front of the lodgings leading towards the heart of the camp, Autumn was not familiar with. They knew this was the way to go, however they had mostly been too lost in thought to pay attention to their surroundings when they last came down this way. _Oh no….Anemone’s going to get mad at A2 if I don’t show up…and then I won’t be able to stay here…._ Autumn was so busy worrying that they failed to notice the pants they were wearing had begun to unravel around the legs, and were now dangerously close to their feet.

“…Oh n—ah!” _*Plop*_ Autumn landed face first in the dirt, the walking stick scattering somewhere away from them, “…Oh No….I need to…find that stick…I don’t want to los—ah!”

_*plop*_

As Autumn attempted to stand up, they once again tripped on the legs of their pants—this time landing flat on their bottom. _Why can’t I do even the most simple things…?!?_ Their lip began to quiver, and they started to shake. They tried standing up again and—

*plop*

Autumn couldn’t take it anymore, and they shouted as loud as they could.

“Why does…. nothing work for me?!?” the yell was shaky and not much louder than the average voice; it was soon followed by Autumn burying their head in their right hand.

“Are you alright?” a woman's voice above Autumn asked; The experimental unit didn’t even bother to look up and shook their head.

“Autumn…can’t see…needs cane to...find way around…” Autumn started rolling their pant legs up, though doing so with only one arm was quite an undertaking.

“You mean this cane?” a male voice this time, it sounded higher in pitch than the woman's. Autumn felt something long and smooth be placed in their arms. Autumn's jaw drop slightly as the cane fell into place in their right hand.

“…T-Thank you…” Autumn furrowed their brow a little, making a pleading expression in the general direction of the voices “…um…may you please…help Autumn up…?”

“Sure thing,” the woman said, before Autumn felt a hand hoist their body up. It wasn’t as if Autumn wasn’t able to lift themselves up normally; however, without their functional unit to assist them in orientation, this task became a lot more difficult. Coupled with the tripping hazard pants, it was practically impossible for them to right themselves back up.

“…thank you aga—ah!” _Again?_ Autumn had forgotten to pull up their left pant leg properly, and tripped over it once again. Instead of landing on the ground however, their face ended up pressed against a fabric with something soft behind it. 

“Are you sure you’re alright?” the woman’s voice had concern to it, and Autumn was able to confirm very quickly that they had fallen onto her midriff.

“Looks like that was your problem.” Autumn felt a hand pull their pant leg up until it matched the other one—the voice was the male's. “That should do it.” 

  Autumn backed away from the female android, clutching their probing cane in a death grip, and bowed.

“Thank you….both of you…” Autumn paused, “…which way is…Anemone...?”

“If you turn around, you’ll be facing the right way.” The male voice said.

“…okay…thank you…” Autumn did as instructed and began moving.

Thankfully, their pant legs didn’t fall down this time, and had rather little trouble navigating the rest of the way. Autumn soon picked up on the Resistance leader's voice, and followed it. Anemone seemed to have spotted them, because Autumn could hear her calling them over.

 “Hey, Autumn! Hurry up, You’re already 10 minutes late!” the older woman didn’t seem particularly annoyed with Autumn in particular, but she also clearly hadn’t had the best day so far. 

“Sorry…!” Autumn said as they felt their cane hit the side of Anemone's table. “…Autumn…fell down…needed help to…get back up…” 

    It seemed like Anemone had now noticed that Autumn was a bit more spacey than they were the day before, because her voice had a hint of concern to it when she spoke next.

“Are you sure you’ll be able to work?” She asked, “You look like you've lost your bearings.” 

“Sorry…Autumn…didn’t sleep very well…last night….” It was only a partial lie, “Also…Autumn…is blind…”

“I knew that last part,” Anemone let out a sigh, “A2 told me before she went to her lodging to rest yesterday. Sorry if I reacted a bit harshly, but some people can be a real handful at times."

“What can…Autumn do…?” the small unit looked in the direction of Anemone's voice. 

“Well, I have chips which need to be hacked. If you can do that.” Autumn nodded. “Good, then I’ll leave you to it.”

“Miss Anemone…?” Autumn's voice was soft as the Resistance leader directed them to a seat.

“Yeah?”

“Thank you…for letting…Autumn stay…” the experimental unit smiled up at Anemone. Shortly afterwards, they felt a hand pat their head.

“Don’t worry about it.”

?.?.?.?

“That certainly was a strange android. Never heard of one that was blind."

“Anemone probably recruited them into the Resistance recently, and they may have lost their eyes to a machine, it would explain why they can’t see.”

“That’s true…I still have a feeling though. That we'll see them again?”

“They work in the Resistance camp…”

“I know that! But I don’t mean it like that—I mean, I feel like we'll be involved with them for some reason or another.”

“Whatever you say. Come on, we should be on our way, Nines.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "Well jee, I wonder who the mystery characters are. "
> 
> After going through this chapter again, I realized there are a lot of awkwardly written segments. This chapter *was* written in one day, in pretty much one straight shot after all.


	10. Surgery

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Two chapters in one week?!?
> 
> And the second is the longest chapter I've written so far?!?
> 
> Consider this my insurance.

   Aesop slowed to a halt in front of the camp entrance. After Pascal had finished making the eyes, 4S, A2, and himself had taken one to the client who originally asked for an eye.

   The man wasn’t the kindest either, _quite a rude fellow actually._

   “Alright, you know the drill, right Aesop?” A2 asked as she dismounted with 4S from the machine's back end.

  “Yes I do, m--A2. I'll be waiting here until one of you come back with Autumn. The old chap'll probably want my approval of the transplant anyways.” Aesop said.

“Good.” The attacker nodded before motioning 4S to follow her into the camp, “Well see you short—”

“Ah, A2.” An unfamiliar voice rang in Aesop's ear. Clearly female. “Fancy meeting you here.”

  The old machine wasn’t in an especially good position to see into the camp, so he turned slightly. Doing so revealed a woman of the same height as A2, but with shorter (and much neater) hair, as well as a boy of the same height as 4S, but with white hair. Both seemed to be wearing similar outfits to both 4S and A2 (Although the woman was wearing more clothing than the attacker was). _Both YoRHa?_

“Oh, hey 2B.” Aesop still wasn’t in the mood of being noticed by possibly hostile androids just yet, the female (which A2 referred to as 2B) was very clearly designed for killing; although the old machine found it odd that he was able to discern that given the mostly gentle expression on the android's face. Aesop snapped back to reality when A2 pulled the white haired scanner (an educated guess) into a headlock. “How’s it coming, 9S?”

“Gah!” Clearly unready for the gesture, the male android fell back slightly and kicked his feet briefly. “How’s what coming?”

“You know.” A smile seemed to have appeared on A2's face, but Aesop was unable to get look at it. The long-haired android pulled 9S over somewhere out of Aesop's sight, and 4S started talking to the other android, 2B.

“Hello, 2B. It’s nice to see you again.” the scanner was calm and his voice was pleasant. He offered a smile to the woman. “How’d your mission with 9S go?”

“It went well enough, thanks for asking.” 2B had a small smile on her face which was covered up as a hand moved to cover it when she began laughing. “Nines fell down into a puddle of mud at one point and got some of the seeds we were supposed to deliver all over him; The animals wouldn’t stop following us around after that, and a bunch of them licked his face.” 

The woman calmed herself down and gave a questioning look to the black-haired scanner.

“You took off your visor.” She said with surprise in her tone 

“Oh, yeah. A2 had me take it off.” 4S rubbed the back of his head and looked away slightly.

“You look nice.” The comment made the scanner whip his head up. 2B offered a small smile. “I’m sure A2 asked you to take it off for a reason.” The woman gave a small wink, “Good luck by the way.”

   4S was about to say something when 9S and A2 returned into Aesop’s view. The latter having her arm hooked around the scanner’s shoulder. 

“Well it was great catching up with you, 9S!” A2's smile was probably genuine, _probably_. 9S have a nervous smile towards the other two.

“Great catching up with you too, A2.” It sounded forced, _A2 is quite scary._

  A2 let go and gave the boy a pat on the back. 9S walked over to 2B and waved at 4S, who returned the gesture.

“We'll be off then” 2B said, locking hands with the white-haired scanner. “Come on Nines.”

   Only then did it click in Aesop's mind that he was still sitting right outside of the Resistance camp, and therefore was in their way. _Perhaps if I remain motionless they won’t notice me?_ It was a trick he had observed in old human TV shows; one human would stand still—pretending to be a statue—and others would walk past them, not realizing they were alive. Unfortunately for Aesop, he forgot that standing still didn’t necessarily turn off the lights behind his eyes.

“What’s a machine doing this close to the camp?” 9S asked as his partner let go of his hand and stepped in front of him—the white sword floating now drawn.

“Whoa, Whoa, WHOA!!!” Aesop started moving in reverse, his hands held out in front of him in defence. “I’m not here to try cause trouble! Put that thing down!”

“Is that so?” 2B narrowed her eyes, and seemed to grip the sword tighter. Behind her, 9S seemed to be preparing to hack into the old machine.

“Yep, that big guy’s with us.” A2's voice sent a wave of relief through Aesop. Thank God, the last thing I wanted was for this to get ugly. “He’s a bit odd, but besides that, he’s not a problem.”

“Oh, I see.” The short-haired female sheathed her blade, and the scanner behind her lowered the hacking screen in front of him. 

“Thank you for understanding, kind missus.” the last phrase seemed to makes the female wince slightly, and she walked last the old machine, 9S following closely behind. _Did I say something wrong? It’s quite obvious that those two are in a relationship; human records indicate that Missus would be the correct word in that case…_

   Aesop abandoned the thought, and began waiting patiently for Autumn to come out of the camp.

*-*-*-*

     Autumn moved their cursor through the chip’s hacking space, scanning for any corruptions or damaged systems. So far, they had gone through roughly forty chips—some containing malware, some incorrectly programmed, some had lost all the internalized systems—and had been completely separated from the material during this time. Transfer from one chip to another was simple enough (Anemone had left them quite close together), and Autumn had yet to leave the hacking space even once since they began. They were finishing the formatting on the interface system of the current chip, when Autumn felt a hack coming from the outside. _What?!_

     Immediately, Autumn pulled themselves from the hacking space, darkness greeting them—as well as voices.

“I didn’t think we’d have to hack you just to get your attention, Autumn.” The voice made the experimental unit perk up.

“A2...!” Autumn stood up quickly and starting running towards the voice—forgetting they were behind a desk, they hit the table edge shoulder first and fell over on their back. “….ow…”

“Autumn!?” 4S’ worried voice was quickly followed by the sound of boots running towards Autumn. “Are you okay? I don’t think I damages any of your systems when I hacked in but—” 

“Autumn is fine…” the experimental unit sat up and reached up their hands towards the sound of 4S' voice. “Please help Autumn…stand up…?”

   Autumn felt a hand wrap around their right(they still couldn’t feel their left), and soon found themselves being hoisted up to their feet. Autumn thanked 4S, and immediately turned their attention to A2's voice.

+×+×+×+

    After watching 4S pull them to their feet, A2 started talking to Autumn again.

“So how did the work go Au—oh?” the small android had wrapped their arms around A2—burying their head in her midriff. Their breath was quick, and their black box was whirring loudly enough that she could hear it. _Something’s off about this…_ “What’s wrong Autumn?”

   The female android rubbed the top of Autumn’s head gently, hoping it would make them calm down and let go. _They weren’t acting like this earlier._ She thought to herself, _What’s gotten into you Autumn?_ The smaller android continued to stay like that for another 10 seconds, before quickly pulling away—likely realizing how awkward the action must have looked. Behind Autumn, Anemone raised an eyebrow at A2; although she didn’t quite catch it, she could've sworn that 4S had shifted awkwardly as she looked up from Autumn.

“S-sorry…Autumn…doesn’t know why…didn’t mean to…” Their voice trailed off, a small amount of pain in the last words.

“Its fine.” A2 smiled—more for herself than Autumn. “Still, I didn’t expect you to be so excited to see me. Even Anemone didn’t do that when we were away for 5 years.”

Anemone opened her mouth to say something, but failed to; so she instead opted to look away, a light pink blush dusting her cheeks. _Looks like I was right on the money yesterday._ A2 had to keep herself from smirking as the Resistance leader cleared her throat.

“ To answer your earlier question, Number Two,” Anemone regained her composure, “Autumn has done an excellent job fixing chips; They almost work as fast as 9S and 4S.”

“That’s quite the accomplishment,” 4S brought a hand to his chin, and looked at the small android. “I knew you were capable of hacking, but that account indicates you’re also proficient and used to it.”

“Autumn needs to maintain own systems a lot…” Autumn spoke up, their body facing more towards A2 than 4S. “…so Autumn is used to it…”

   A2 walked up to Anemone and placed a hand on her shoulder, _Soon, Autumn_. She leaned in to whisper into the robed woman's ear.

+=+=+=+

     4S couldn’t hear what A2 was telling Anemone, but he knew that the look she gave him meant that he needed to take Autumn to see Aesop. The scanner walked over to the small android and placed a hand on their shoulder. Autumn turned their head towards him.

   “Aesop wanted to see you, Autumn.” The smaller android perked up at the name.

   “Go see Aesop…!” Autumn whipped around and latched their arm around 4S', before making an apologetic expression.“…Autumn…doesn’t know where walking stick is…”

“O- Okay,” A2 was looking at him, not even bothering to hide the smirk plastered on her face. _What’s so funny?!_ “Let's get going, then.”

    Walking with Autumn clinging at his side, the scanner made his way to the entrance of the camp, getting several unwanted glances from the androids in the Resistance—most notably from the Resistance’s mechanic, Clematis.

“Are you training to be a big brother there, 4S?” She chuckled a little, “Or…” She narrowed her eyes and the grin on her face broadened. “Maybe to be a father?”

   4S had met the mechanic before the Bunker had fallen, she had gotten him to collect a bunch of parts to repair her equipment. She was taller than he was (about 10cm or so), and wore similar attire to most of the Resistance members: grey and brown robed clothing, gloved hands, and dark brown boots. Her hair was auburn in colour— though much of it was stained black due to her line of work.

    Clematis also had a knack of sticking her nose into the business of others—especially, 4S'. The scanner had been tormented by the woman ever since she found out about him pairing up with A2—using phrases like: ‘you two are such a cute couple’ or ‘So, have you made the first move yet?’. She rarely ever said these sorts of things in front of A2, of course—she wasn’t a martyr; however she did make small side comments whenever the two of them left the camp. He never understood why she did it, _To make me look like a fool during missions?_ That possibility had been scratched early on, since her worst comments never seemed to come before missions, _Maybe because she had a bad day?_ That had been a the reason 4S believed until recently, when she very clearly had not had a bad day. _Why then?_ The boy didn’t know, and probably never would, so for now he decided to just give a normal answer.

“Autumn isn’t able to see, Clematis,” 4S sighed, while Autumn turned their head towards the sound of the woman's voice. “I’m just helping them out of the camp.”

“Cle...ma..tis…?” the small android spoke quietly, but it was loud enough to gain the attention of the mechanic.

“You're that new android working for Anemone, right?” the woman smiled at Autumn, despite the android not being able to see it. “I’m Clematis, the main mechanic around here at the Resistance. I’ve known 4S for a while.” 

 _Please don’t go there._ The last thing the scanner needed was for Autumn to pick up on the gossip that the mechanic usually spewed. 4S continued to walk out of the Resistance, pulling Autumn with him. _Autumn’s surprisingly light, actually…_ From his peripherals, he spotted Clematis waving goodbye to him. Out of habit, he reciprocated the gesture slightly. _Let’s just get to Aesop without anymore interruptions please._

*_*_*_*

     Aesop gently scratched a small marking onto his the tip of his spear with the sharpened tip of his smallest left finger. A total of 5 large markings lined the blade, each one representing a millennium which he had lived through disconnected from the network. In between them were smaller (but still noticeable) markings indicating centuries. Between those, decade markings; and between those, year markings—each one of those markings had approximately 12 small markings spanning their widths (sometimes less than twelve—Aesop couldn’t always remember to mark some of the months off). Aesop had originally started doing it to try and pass the time, but once his ability to perceive the chronological order of events became impaired, it had become a necessary action to help him understand when things happened—preserving memories that were most important to him.  
_Another month has gone by, huh?_ The marking Aesop was engraving was slightly bolder than the last three. _Well, it’s only been a few days but still..._

“Aesop!” the voice made the old machine look up from his spear, before laughing jovially.

“Ohohoho! Good to see you again old chap!” Autumn relinquished their hold on 4S and ran up to the machine, the lack of the armour surprising Aesop. “ You’re dressed rather lightly today, old chap. You look a bit smaller than usual as well.”

   Autumn pouted, making Aesop laugh, _You’re too funny sometimes, old chap._ The old machine replaced his spear behind him and used his right hand to ruffle Autumn's hair. _Can’t see at all right now huh?....That's what I thought, did you talk to her earlier?....Good._ Aesop decided it was time to ask Autumn about the implants.

“Say, old chap?” Autumn turned their head up at Aesop. “Would you like to see?”

*-*-*-*

 _See?....As in….eyes?_ Autumn couldn’t find the words to say to that. The very idea of sight was foreign to them—when their functional unit was active, they could make out vague shapes, yes, but the only visual place they knew of was the hacking space; even the night before, when they had hacked into A2, she wasn’t anything more than a dark shadow, a blur in the shape of an android. Autumn themselves was only a pair of opaque hands, with only a somewhat outlined body. They had no idea what ‘colour’ was, what androids truly looked like, what machines truly looked like, and they most certainly did not know what autumn looked like.

   The most colourful season: autumn. It was the unit's self-given namesake. They had processed olds human records on weather, as well as the seasons. Of course, Autumn was unable to understand half of the words: red, orange, yellow, blue, green, brown, black—no, they understood what black was—perhaps not at the time, but they understood what it was after meeting Aesop: it was the dark in the hacking space, the opposite of the light: the white. But black, white, and grey were all shades, not colours.

_I want to…I want to see…_

Autumn wanted to see colours.

_I want to see…_

They wanted to see the world.

_I want to see…._

They wanted to see—

 _A—_  
+=+=+=+

“Autumn wants to see…!” the small android had been deliberating for the past minute standing in front of Aesop. 4S sighed, _Now I won't need to be lectured by A2._ Autumn paused for moment, hesitating.

“Is….everyone okay with that…?” 

The question made Aesop laugh.

“Ohohoho! You’ll be able to fit in with other androids easier won't you, old chap? ” Aesop procured a small bag from behind him and motioned for 4S to grab it, before taking his spare hand and placing it on Autumn's shoulder. “I’m behind any operation which will help me keep my promise to you, Autumn—this included.”

“I’m behind it as well, Autumn.” The small android turned towards 4S, “So is A2.”

   Something seemed to click in Autumn at the mention of the woman's name. Something which 4S found a bit odd—but quickly ignored.

“If…A2 and 4S are okay with it then...” Autumn smiled and hopped a little, “Okay!...Autumn will do it…!” 

“That’s the old chap I know!” Aesop laughed heartily, before giving Autumn's shoulder a squeeze, and stared at them for a few seconds. 4S had seen the two do this before, and he thought he finally knew what it was. _They’re talking to each other mentally, huh? I’ve never really heard of that between a machine and an android that didn’t require hacking…_ 4S was brought back to reality when he felt Autumn collide with him, latching their arm onto his. 

“Lets go, 4S…!” the small android began walking towards where they thought the camp was. The scanner pulled Autumn in the right direction, and walked back towards the camp.

*_*_*_*

_I hope you’ll be okay, old chap….You didn’t react well at all when you got your voice back…. You have limited systems as well….You know I’ll always support any decision which will help you…As long as you understand, old chap…. Go get ‘em._

   Autumn ran towards 4S, colliding with the scanner and latching onto his arm. Aesop sighed silently as the two returned back into the camp. _Autumn…be careful._

+×+×+×+

“A2!” the female android felt Autumn before she saw them; the smaller android had latched onto her arm, practically jumping in excitement. “Autumn wants to see…!”

  4S popped into her view next, clearly trying not to grin. _Oh boy, I’m gonna have one of **those** conversations next aren’t I?_ A2 subtly rolled her eyes before turning her attention back Autumn, giving the little android a small smile.

“Aesop told you about getting proper eyes, huh?” the woman ruffled Autumn’s hair a little, “I talked to Anemone about it while you two were out; she says you can go ahead and ask Clematis to begin the surgery when you’re ready.”

The woman paused, _I shouldn’t be rushing Autumn into having that surgery done. They’re already not in the best of conditions._ A2 had been thinking about what the smaller android had told her the night before, as well as how they had acted upon her return to the camp. _They haven’t told me everything yet, they didn’t w—_

 _No_ , she stopped her thoughts from drifting into an accusatory direction, _They **couldn’t** have told me everything yet._ The small android had stopped their contact through the hacking space last night due to their ‘functional unit’ overheating; there were also very clear signs that Autumn barely understood the situation themselves, and their mind was likely a mess at the moment. _I don’t quite understand what Autumn is, or what they were actually part of—but maybe it’s best to just wait for them to be ready._  
The woman was brought away from her thoughts by said android pulling on the cloth around her midriff, eyebrows furrowed in what could only be called an inpatient expression. _First time you’ve made a face like that, Autumn._

“A2…Autumn wants to see…” their voice was almost whiny in its tone, Autumn stopping themselves from going all the way with it at the last second. 

“Okay, okay. If you want to go that badly, then I guess we should take you there now.” A2 started walking towards the small medical bay where Clematis was busy tinkering with…something. The mechanic waved when she noticed the two approach. 

“Hello there, A2! Nice to see you again, Autumn!” the mechanic was very clearly excited, so much so it actually scared A2 a little, and made her almost instinctively place a hand in front of the small android standing behind her. This didn’t go unnoticed by the other woman. “Relax, I won’t hurt the kid. Jeez, you can be so uptight sometimes, A2!”

  A2 personally didn’t have a single thing against the mechanic—the former YoRHa android had only spoken with her a few times, all of which happened after she woke up following her fight with 9S—but she had seen plenty of people with personalities similar to her, and they always ending up doing…less than intelligent things. The last thing A2 needed was for Clematis to accidentally get carried away with what she was doing during the surgery and have Autumn end up with an extra arm, or worse.

“Sorry,” though not what A2 wanted to say, she figured it was best not to get on the mechanic’s nerves since Autumn would be in her hands for the next few hours. “It’s a bit of a reflex.”

“Oh?” the robed woman’s eyes widened for a split second, before she closed them and smiled. “I see…”

“What?” _What is she thinking?_

“It’s nothing, A2.” The mechanic walked up to her, “Anyways, we should get started shouldn’t we?”

    Clematis gave Autumn a light pat on the head before holding her hand out for the small android to take. A2 let go of their arm, and gently guided them towards the mechanic. Handing over the cloth sack 4S had given her—holding the small android’s soon to be eyes—in the process. Autumn turned their head back to her and gave a smile.

“See you soon…A2…!” with those words, Autumn slipped behind the curtains of the medical bay, and was boosted onto one of the beds. A2 smiled a bit, mostly to herself. _I really hope you didn’t make that awful pun on purpose, Autumn…_

+=+=+=+

  4S had decided not to follow A2 and Autumn to the medical bay, the last thing he needed was another teasing. Instead, he opted to look over some of the music the Resistance had. For some reason, he couldn’t help but feel a bit put off by some of them, which seemed to match past events to an eerie extent. As such, it didn’t take very long for him to grow sick of listening to them, and he turned the jukebox off, sitting down on one of the benches with a sigh. The scanner’s thoughts began to drift towards Autumn, 4S had been curious of what the small android’s idenitity was, pretty much since he had first met them, _They aren’t a normal android, that’s for sure._ The boy furrowed his brow, _They didn’t want to answer my question about whether or not they were YoRHa back then, either._ Perhaps Autumn themselves didn’t remember, but if that was the case, why did it seem like they were almost scared when he had asked the question? _What are they—_

    4S had their thought process cut short by a pair of hands covering up his eyes.

“Wah!” The boy fell backwards, landing on the ground head-first—and being met with the sight of his partner smirking above him.

“Really, Four?” A2 spoke in a somewhat condescending tone, “I didn’t expect you to get **that** scared by me just covering your eyes.”

“I-I wasn’t expecting it either!” The scanner could feel the redness in his cheeks, as he spoke. “You shouldn’t do things like that A—“ he paused as his eyes widened, “Did you just call me ‘Four’, again?”

“Maybe I did,” A2’s grin broadened, “Here, let me help you up.” 

The woman knelt down and slipped her arms underneath the boy’s. Before yanking him off the bench as she stood up. 

“Ow—A2!?” 4S would have said more, but he very quickly became conscious of the position he was in.

With how A2 had lifted him up, the back of the scanner’s head was currently resting against the woman’s chest, her black box humming quietly. ' _A2, why aren’t you letting go? I’m fine now.'_ Is what 4S wanted to say, but he found his voice was caught in his throat. _Why does my chest feel like this? Why can’t I talk?_ The boy tried looking up at A2 but couldn’t quite crane his neck enough. _Is she enjoying this or something?_

“4S,” A2’s voice sounded concerned. The boy felt the older android loosen her grip, allowing him to step away from her. She stopped him from walking too far off by placing a hand on his shoulder and turning him around. “Is something bothering you?”

  The expression she wore wasn’t one he was used to seeing from her, in fact he had never seen her look like this in front of anyone: it was a face of worry. _Could it be from yesterday…?_ He opened his mouth to speak, but was quickly hushed by the woman, who pulled on his arm and began walking towards the flats where they slept. Within a few minutes, they were in their room, and A2 sat down in one of the chairs near 4S’ bed. 

“You were acting weirdly yesterday, 4S.” the attacker began as 4S sat on the side of his bed (now Autumn’s), “And you were acting weird again today.”

“W-what do you mean, A2?” The scanner knew the answer of course, but he really didn’t want to be reminded of the embarrassment outside the camp entrance yesterday. _Please just let the topic go…_

“Don’t play dumb with me, Four, you know exactly what I’m talking about.” A2 stood up and walked over boy, leaning down to place her head over his shoulder. “Do you remember what you said about this yesterday? When you were getting all red?”

“I-I…” 4S’ face was burning hot at the moment; a mixture of the memory of the day prior and the female android’s current actions. _Why did she have to ask that question?_ “‘I’m fine, don’t worry about it.’” 

   The scanner looked down at his lap dejectedly, he felt like anything he said right now would wound him emotionally. A2 continued speaking.

“When we first became partners did I not say there would be hell to pay if you pulled a stunt like last time?” Despite the connotations given in A2’s speech, her voice bore no hint of aggression or anger to it.

“Y-yes….” 4S mumbled.

“Do you remember what that stunt was, Four?” _Of course I do. How could I forget?_

“yes….”

“Do you remember what I got mad at you for, during that stunt?” _What? Why are you asking me this? It was because…_

“Because I almost got you killed when I tried to hack into that goliath, right?”

“No.” the answer hit the boy like a brick, and made him raise up his head a bit. “I got mad at you for that, but I’m talking about what I got really mad at you for.” 

“What?” 4S thought that almost letting her die would have been the thing she was angriest about; so he was at a loss for what she could possibly be talking about. The woman let out a sigh before backing away slightly from the scanner and looking him directly in his eyes. 

“I got mad at you because you acted like it had been all your fault that I was heavily damaged when we returned to the camp, even though half of this damage came from everything besides that goliath. I got mad because you lied.”

“Huh?” 4S’ eyes widened, he had explained to A2 after that ordeal that he had lied for her sake, not just to try and make himself look bad, but she was already a bottle of anger when he talked to her, and they weren’t partners again for over 2 months. “Then...”

“I’m your partner, Four, it’s partially my job to look out for you.” The woman sat back down in the chair, breaking eye contact with the scanner for a moment. “Yesterday, it was very obvious that you weren’t fine.” She re-established eye contact and scooted closer to the boy, “Tell me the truth, Four.”

“Ah…” 4S looked away from the woman, _There’s no way I can tell her I might have a crush on her! How will she react to it?_ “…”

“Four, I’m going to sit here until you tell me the truth.” She was treating 4S almost like a child, or a younger brother. It felt somewhat degrading for the boy, but… “If you won’t give me an answer, I’ll ask the question again: ‘Do you have a really bad fever, or are you just embarrassed that a girl’s standing this close to you?’”

“I…” the scanner bit down on his lip, he honestly wanted to tell the truth, but it was too embarrassing, and could end up ruining any future interactions the two had. He mumbled an answer to the woman’s question. “The second one…”

“…” It seemed that A2 had realized his discomfort, because her face relaxed a little upon hearing his answer. “Okay, that’s a good enough answer I guess.”

4S continued looking downwards at his lap, moping. _Why do I feel like this whenever I’m around her? Why does she always seem to make it harder for me by constantly grappling me all the time? Why can’t I—_

   His thoughts were cut short by the long-haired android hugging him gently, her hands on the back of his head, holding him gently against her chest. 

“A2?” his voice croaked out as something not much louder than a whisper, the female android hushed him.

“You’re feeling down right now, right Four?” A2 whispered. “I wouldn’t want my partner being depressed when we have work to do, now would I?”

“…No, A2.” Slowly, the boy brought his own arms around the woman’s torso, and hugged lightly back. 

He wasn’t sure of it, but he swore that A2 was crying while she held him. Even if she was, he wasn’t about to ruin the moment and ask her.

*-*-*-*

_Hey there, 1-37! I’m 1-34X, I’ll be your supervisor from now on!_

The memories replayed themselves, this time with more clarity—more distinction.

_You need to be more careful, 37! You could have died back there!_

    The distortions lessened, and new information wormed its way into their memories.

_Why are you doing these things to 1-37? What did they do to deserve this?_

Memories which still lacked order.

_Good morning, 1-37X. I’ll be your operator from this point onwards._

But they always ended the same way.

…

Except…they didn’t this time. Instead, a new wave of memories started flooding Autumn’s mind.

_“Hey 1-37! Congratulations, on completing all of your basic trials! It makes me so proud as your supervisor!” the high-pitched feminine voice said cheerfully to the experimental unit, who gave a small smile to the voice._

_“Aaaaaaannnnnnnndddd, since you completed them early, I’ve been given permission to reward you a little! Here, follow me!”_

_A small hand not much bigger than the unit’s own, pulled 1-37X along; the unit not knowing how to respond to the situation._

_“Here we are! I have…feeling…enjoy…..37…”_

The memory cut out, distortion becoming too harsh for Autumn to decipher. It was soon followed by another.

_“37?! 1-37?!” the voice of the unit’s supervisor rang out through the corridor; 1-37X clutched the sides of their head, scared. Eventually, the sound of the older unit’s footsteps came to a halt outside of the small alcove where 1-37X hid. “Here you are.”_

_The younger experimental unit started to scramble away from the voice of their supervisor, only to have the aforementioned throw their weight on top of 1-37X, who thrashed underneath the heavier model. Their supervisor simply gripped their shoulder tightly, and leaned into them a little._

_“Please…don’t run away like this again, 37…” there was concern in the feminine unit’s voice,_

_“_ _You really had me worried, I was…I was afraid I’d end up losing you…”_

_Releasing the pressure from 1-37X’s back, their supervisor helped them stand up, and interlocked hands with them._

_“If you ever get scared like that again,” the older unit squeezed 1-37X’s hand, “come to me, okay? That’s what super—no, that’s what friends are for.”_

_The younger unit’s eyelids widened at that word, causing a laugh from their supervisor._

_“You act so shocked, 37! Of course you’re someone who…be….friend…”_

The memory cut out again, before being replaced by yet another. This time however, the memory was very clearly not a good one.

_*Crunch*_

_The bones in 1-37X’s right arm broke; they wanted to scream, very badly at that. The trial had been the 4th of their second year in the facility, this one was apparently called a ‘rigidity test’, which made little sense to the young unit, since they were already known to be far less rigid than the other units in their variety. The trial pretty much involved a hydraulic press moving down onto their individual limbs, minus the functional unit. It was a strange trial, as 1-37X’s normal operator was not present, instead an unfamiliar male-sounding unit took their place._

_*Crunch*_

_The bones in their left leg went. This time, the unit thrashed as the press slowly lifted up from the now mangled mess of plastic, carbon, and metal which was formerly their leg. They wanted the pain to end. They wanted someone to end it—anyone to end it. The press over 1-37’s right leg now began to lower. This had to stop. They didn’t want this, it hurt too…Suddenly….._

    Finally, the memories finished with the classic closer: that same scene of the heat from the bruning facility, shock waves from explosion eminating from some places.

_I…need to...wake up…_

_Aesop…A2….4S…_

_I want to…see them…_

    Slowly but surely, Autumn began to open up their eyelids—and saw light

And **saw.**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So yeah, another two characters introduced into the plot. 
> 
> 2B and 9S are still side characters for the moment, but I think you can expect them to become major components to the story in a couple chapters.


	11. Primum Inviso

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A tad late on this one butipostedtwochapterslastwesoleavemealone

 

    The brightness invaded Autumn’s vision, they could feel the soft mattress of a bed underneath them. The image hitting their eyes began to clarify, revealing the drab roof of what Autumn assumed was the medical bay. _Is…this…what it’s like to see?_ Autumn turned their head to the left side, where two small, grey orbs rested on a table. _Are those…?_

   “Oh, you’re awake, Autumn?” the familiar voice made Autumn whip their head around to the other side. “How do you feel?”

     The woman’s appearance made the experimental unit stop breathing. Autumn had known that androids had a much thinner body than machines did, and that they were modelled off of their human creators; however, they hadn’t particularly known what a human looked like, so seeing the female android in front of them caught them completely by surprise, and probably triggered their mind to actually realize that they did, in fact, possess sight.

     “A….t…two…” The image of the woman began to blur and cloud, Autumn felt a dampness begin to flow down their cheeks. It was a sensation which was equal parts familiar and alien. 

     “Autumn?!” the female android rushed up from the entrance of the medical bay, to the side of the experimental model’s bed. “What’s wrong?”

“Autumn…is…f-fine…ju..st…” their voice cut in between sobs, _Its…beautiful…_

“A2, what’s wro—Autumn?!” 4S’ voice came from same spot as A2’s had, before being followed with a fast set of footsteps running towards the same side of the bed as Autumn’s other visitor. _This…room…is…beautiful_

“Autumn, we’re right here. Please, get a hold of yourself!” _A2…is…._

   Autumn slowly began to recover their breath as the long-haired android grasped their hand tightly, _Why…can’t I…grab…back…?_ Autumn had only now really noticed just how limited their functions had become; their thought process had become slow and their speech more impaired, but most of all, they couldn’t seem to move much other than their head and eyelids. These symptoms quickly told Autumn all they need to know about what was wrong: they had nearly had a system overload due to the implementation of the ocular devices—an effect magnified by the recent activation of their voice system, and the ‘data box’. 

   “Autumn…ha..s…too…much…going…on…” their speech was hushed, they were being very conscious of not overworking themselves any more than they already had. “Need…to…fix…self…”

“A2, I think it might be better for us to give Autumn some space for a little bit while they configure their systems.” The short-haired scanner put a hand on A2’s shoulder. _4S…is…braver…_ Autumn then noticed it was only touching the woman’s shoulder extremely lightly. _A…little…_

“Okay,” the female android sighed, “See you in a little bit, Autumn.”

   Autumn felt A2 give their hand a slight squeeze before exiting the room, leaving them alone once again. _Need to…start…organizing…_

*_*_*_*

_The world was filled to the brim with hatred. Machines hated androids, androids hated machines, aliens hated androids, androids hated aliens, and machines hated aliens. Aesop was hated by machines. Aesop hated machines. Aesop was hated by androids. Aesop hated androids. Aesop had hated aliens, but there were very few of them left these days, so the feeling wasn’t quite as strong. The machine looked out at the desolated battlefield before them—so plain, so dull, so boring. Aesop hated it. Anger had become the prominent emotion which controlled the machine’s actions for the past several years. Fear took control only rarely, acting as a sort of safe-guard when faced with an absurd number of enemies (more recently, whenever androids were the enemy), but asides from those instances, anger dominated the machines thoughts. They would kill everything that stood between them and their next destination, which would always end up angering them even more. This wasteland, littered with the corpses of androids and machines, was no exception. The sound of one of Aesop’s treads running over an android’s leg evoked a burning rage, making them feel like the deceased individual should have died elsewhere. The anger became stronger as the large machine continued through and saw that some of the machines were still alive, barely. Most of them had no effect on Aesop, who became angrier at each pained noise made by their former brethren. However, just as they were leaving the far edge of the battlements, Aesop saw an older model slowly fumble up the side of the levy separating the lifeless, dark land of the battlefield, from the lighter grasslands on the other side. The mid-sized machine would normally have had four treaded appendages for locomotion, but only one remained which still seemed to be functional (two others were still attached, but one lacked a tread, and the other had been broken in half). It’s body had many holes and punctures in it, and oil spilled from said perforations every time the machine slipped, followed by a noise equivalent to a cry of agony. Aesop began to become angry at this sight, but upon drawing closer to the levy (and thus the machine), they suddenly heard it talk._

_“See…world…want…” the machine had likely been disconnected from the network somehow after the battle had taken place, and in the worst possible way. “True…nature…birds…”_

_By the time Aesop had almost reached the top of the levy, the damaged machine was also painfully close to the top of the ledge. That was when Aesop decided to look at the other machine, an action which immediately made them stop moving._

_“Can’t…need….want….” the machine tried desperately to reach the up, to see the other side, but the amount of oil it had lost and the damage to its systems was now too great. The light faded from it’s one remaining eye and the metal corpse slumped against the dirt. Aesop looked over to the other side of the ledge, and suddenly felt emptiness. The land on the other side lacked corpses, but the grass was thin and lasted for only a few metres, before dissolving into desert sand. From this emptiness, a new emotion formed in Aesop’s core: Sadness._

“Hey, you!” the voice of a small stubby brought Aesop back from his trance-like state he fell into whenever he stood still for too long. “Come play tag with us!”

    “Tag, good sir?” Aesop knew the rules of course, it was an old human game where one person would be ‘it’ and try and tag one of the other players. What he wasn’t sure of was how these machines thought it was played.

“It’s a game!” a second stubby exclaimed. “You take a stick and throw it, then whoever catches it gets to be it!” 

“That’s….all?” _Their version is literally just an extremely idiotic version of catch?_

“Yep!” _You’re kidding…_

“Come on, play with us!” The small stubbies began hopping over a group of three other machines. **_ONE OF THEM DOESN’T EVEN HAVE ARMS!!!_**

Sighing, Aesop trundled over to join them. 

+×+×+×+

“A2?” the attacker model looked up from the ground and turned her eyes to 4S.

“Yeah?” it was an almost flat response, with a slightly hostile edge to it; enough to make the scanner shrink back a little.

“You don’t need to worry so much about Autumn.” The boy said this very cautiously to the older android, “They can look after themselves just fine, you know?” 

“Can they?” this time the response definitely hostile, causing 4S to back away from the woman and look down at the ground. A2’s eyes widened briefly, _Shit, I didn’t mean to sound that nasty._ “Sorry, I’m…just a little on edge for some reason.”

   But why was she on edge? Why was she so concerned about the state of an android she had only met a day earlier? _Maybe it’s because I’m sick of seeing others dying?_ That wasn’t enough to explain it, though…

“Do you want to talk about something to take your mind off it, A2?” The scanner asked as kindly, while giving the woman a small smile. “I’m not really that great at doing tons of talking, and I know you aren’t really that keen on conversations either, but—”

“I don't think I've told you about the truth of Project YoRHa yet, have I?” He might as well know.

“The…truth?” 4S tilted his head and furrowed his brow. “You mean why YoRHa fell, right? It was because the Bunker’s firewalls were supposed to fall after a certain amount of time had passed, wasn’t it? Or are you talking about our black boxes being made from old machine cores?"

“That’s what 2B and 9S told you, yes. But they never told you the **whole** truth.” A2 checked to make sure no one was looking at the two of them, before gesturing for the boy to follow her. They stepped into a small alleyway, where other androids were unlikely to hear them. The woman checked again for any other observers and began talking to the scanner. “The truth is, YoRHa was made to reignite the idea that there were still humans alive on the moon, to boost the moral of android troops on the ground.”

     4S stood in silence, but his eyes widened slightly at the revelation. Surprisingly though, it was quickly followed by the scanner casting a sad smile at the ground.

“I figured as much was true.” Green eyes turned up to look back into A2's blue ones. “I wondered why those messages always seemed to be pre-recorded.” 

 

Unexpectedly, 4S smiled at A2 warmly.

    “That doesn’t really matter now though, does it?” the boy said, “We survived despite our fate being pre-determined from the start. Plus…” He looked away a little bit, scratching his chin ( A2 couldn’t really tell in the dark alley but she thought he was blushing). “We have each other to fight for, right?”

      For some reason, A2 felt her chest feel a little a little lighter after the last phrase. _Why did that—I already knew…_

“Four…” _That part of you is so much like her…_

   “Ah! A-and everyone else of course!” 4S waved his hands, probably realizing the implications of what he said. _**That** part is a bit different, but… _

    A2 walked up to the boy and wrapped him into a headlock, a smirk plastered on her face.

“Oh? Why’d you say me first, Four?” _It’s cute in its own way._ The scanner suddenly started blushing and sputtering as the woman rubbed her knuckle into his head.

“N-no reason! Just—we normally—we’re—” A2 dragged 4S out of the alley as he stuttered, trying to find an excuse—which helped to keep his attention away from her face, which was lightly tinted pink.

*-*-*-*

 _And…done._ Autumn had finished configuring their ocular. The process hard required them to deactivate the link between their OS and functional unit, making room for the recently installed optical systems. In the process, they also managed to clear up a bunch of old and irrelevant data left behind from their fight with the goliath earlier. No thanks in part to the disembodied voice of their support unit.

  
_// Attention 1-37X: Completely deactivating functional unit is inadvisable should a combat situation arise. This Support unit recommends that two toggle systems be made._

_Alright…That makes sense…_

Autumn had heard the voice for quite a while—it came from the small device located in their suit—however, it hadn't told Autumn anything relating to their identity before now— _1-37X was in a traumatised state following the destruction of the Rebirth facility. After appropriate analysis, this unit decided that withholding said information was the most advisable option_ —even now, the information was limited, due to most of the information being “Level 7 clearance or higher” (According to the support unit, Autumn only had Level 9 clearance). Regardless, it was more than willing to assist them in walking them through the steps to set up all of their systems (and now to set up a toggle switch between systems), so Autumn wasn’t about to complain with the Support unit. 

_//This unit suggests that 1-37X removes or lowers optical system functionality for combat use, as well as lowering their voice functionality._

_I’m already going to have…relatively low voice functionality, to begin with. I don’t need to reduce it any further But I will turn off the optics for combat._

Autumn finished off the combat configurations, before speaking to the voice of their support unit.

_I’m assuming you’ll be the one switching me between configurations?_

_//That is correct, this unit only needs authorization from 1-37X or a designated superior to activate desired functions or configurations._

_A designated superior? You mean like that voice in those memories? 1-34X?_  

For some reason, the name felt nostalgic and unfamiliar at the same time when Autumn said it.

_//1-34X is currently 1-37X's designated supervisor, and would be a designated superior by extension._

_I see… I have another question about that actually._

_//1-37X is free to ask this support unit any question, however a proper answer may not be available._

_From what I’ve seen, 1-34X was…important to me at one point. I’m afraid to ask this question but…_ Autumn paused, _what’s the probability that they're still alive?_

_//Calculating..._

The hacking space fell silent for what felt like an eternity to Autumn.

_//Chances of 1-34X's survival following facility's destruction are roughly 50% based on their approximate location at the time of the first explosion. Data which implies that 1-34X may have already anticipated the explosion beforehand increases this percent to roughly 62%. Further variables unknown._

_So it’s possible they might have lived then—wait, what do you mean they anticipated the explosion?_

_//This information is based purely off of old memories analyzed shortly after 1-37X left the Rebirth facility on December 15, 11941._

_The day the facility..._

_//Destruction of the Rebirth facility occurred on December 17, 11941. This unit was required to do a hard reset of 1-37X's memory after witnessing the incident due to extreme emotional trauma. 1-37X adopted the name “Autumn” the following year on September 18, 11942._

   Autumn fell silent, taking in all of the information the Support unit was giving them, before speaking again.

_When did I meet Aesop?_

_//That information is unknown, possible cause being interference by the machine lifeform Self-identified as “Aesop”. Approximate date is between the years of 11942 and 11945._

_That’s an awfully big gap…I’m pretty sure I’ve known Aesop for more than a year, too._

_//This unit will update approximate information to the years of 11942 to 11944_.

Autumn sighed.

 _Whatever, I should be waking up now anyways._ Autumn felt themselves smile a bit, internally. _I wonder what A2 and Aesop will say?_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next week I may or may not be updating this fic, as the next two chapters are still under construction (one is written but needs editing, and the other has yet to be started). 
> 
> Still, I hope that a break from this fic may allow me to work on some of the older chapters and give time to allow for feedback from all of you.
> 
> ~~~~~~~~
> 
> It also may be a bit late to be saying this but the breaks in each chapter are coded according to the perspective of each character. The current (and likely only) character indicators are as follows:
> 
> *_*_*_*      Aesop  
> *-*-*-*         Autumn  
> +=+=+=+    4S  
> +×+×+×+    A2  
> -_-_-_-          Jackass


	12. Adjusting

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright one more chapter for all of you!

“Good morning! [I mean its technically the evening but who gives a crap]” Clematis was leaning over top of Autumn, startling them a small amount. “Sorry about letting you wake up a tad early before, there was some equipment that needed fixing.” 

“No… it's fine…” Autumn was squinting in the bright light of the medical bay, much the same way they had upon opening their eyes the last time. They could somewhat make out the mechanics features however. “Clematis...?”

“Hmm?” The woman froze up as Autumn wrapped their arms around her shoulders, “W-wha—”

“Thank you…” they released their grip upon noticing the mechanic had stiffened, “Cl-clematis..?” 

“A-Ahhaha! It’s nothing Autumn! D-don’tworryaboutit!” the woman quickly whipped around turning her attention back to the desk where Autumn's old ‘eyes’ had been, and began tinkering with some machine parts. She’s just breaking them though… “Y-you know, Autumn, maybe you should go out and see A2 and 4S now! I’m sure they’re worried about you after that little incident!” 

   Autumn hopped off the side of the medical bed, and began to make their way to the curtain separating them from the rest of the Resistance camp. They turned around, making a concerned expression towards Clematis.

“Is Clematis...really alright…?” The woman waved her hand, still not facing Autumn.

“Like I said I’m fine; you should be focussed on getting used to be able to see.” Her voice had gone mostly flat, _She’s lying…_ Despite that thought, Autumn decided it was best not to concern themselves with the matter—for the moment—and pushed the curtain aside. 

+×+×+×+ 

“A2!” the voice immediately caught the attacker’s attention, she turned her head towards the medical bay; the scanner (who she still had in a headlock) mirroring her actions. “4S!”

    Autumn ran towards them, smiling brightly; their simplistic clothes flapping as they did, _Wait, that’s not goo—_

  _*Thwump*_ the small android tripped over their pant leg and face-planted on the dirt. The only thing reducing the impact being their arms flying down at the last second. Autumn slowly slid up onto their knees, rubbing their nose as A2 and 4S rushed to their side. 

“Are you alright, Autu—“

“A2!” Autumn threw their arms on top of the woman’s shoulders before she could finish, “Autumn can see…!”

“That’s great to hear, Autumn.” A2 was busy checking for any damage which the little android may have sustained from tripping, _How are they not phased at all by that fall?_ She gently pushed Autumn off of her.

“So what’s it like? Did it live up to your expectations?” 4S chided in, “I know you didn’t exactly get the best first look bu—wha!”

   Autumn latched their arms around the scanner’s shoulders, causing him to fall over—more so due to shock than the smaller android’s weight—the boy put an arm around Autumn to reciprocate the gesture somewhat.

“Autumn wants 4S to…walk around camp with Autumn and A2…!” The smaller android relinquished their grip and sat up, making a worried expression. “If...that’s okay with 4S?”

“Of course!” the scanner gave Autumn a warm smile, “Let’s be sure to do that sometime!”

     A2 couldn’t help but laugh a little at the scene, the two of them together looked so much like an older brother looking after his younger sibling. _That would make me the big sister, then—I guess?_ Suddenly, a devious thought crossed A2’s mind. 

“Okay you two, we better go ahead to see Aesop now.” Autumn practically bolted right up when they heard the name, quickly racing to latch onto A2’s left arm. _The trap is set._

“You too, Four.” She held out her other arm from her side, causing the boy to give her a quizzical look, before blushing. 

“Huh?! I-I can walk just fine by myself, A2!” A2 felt a grin creeping up her face, He took the bait.

“Is that any way to talk to your big sister, Four?” A2 waited for a reaction from the scanner, but none came. The woman felt her facing heating up gradually, _Shit, that was less embarrassing in my head._

“Umm?” 4S scratched the back of his head, “I don’t get it. I know you’re older than me but—mmf!”

A2 pressed the boy against her chest to prevent him from seeing her now beet red face.

“Never mind…” the attacker mumbled, “Let’s go see Aesop.”

*_*_*_*

    It had taken the old machine ages, but he had finally managed to shake off the smaller machines who were pestering him with the ‘tag’ game. When he received the stick on his last turn, he threw it as hard as he could towards the crater filled with a strange whitish material. All of the machines (including the armless one) had chased after it, except him. Aesop sighed, _I do wonder whether or not the old chap’s done with the surgery now…_

     As if having his mind read by some unseen god, the old machine heard the voice of his companion coming from the camp entrance.

“Aesop!” the large machine turned around to face the voice, revealing perhaps the most terrifying sight he had seen all day (besides the game of course, which was so illogical he couldn’t help but feel ill): 4S had his visor tied around his mouth, with A2 pinning him against her side. The woman’s expression would—under normal circumstances—be called a pleasant one. Instead, her smile had a very clear darkness to it, not enough for someone as innocent as Autumn to notice, but definitely more than enough for anyone with half a brain to notice. Aesop was about to say something, but was silenced upon A2’s smile widening slightly, the corner of one of her lips twitching. _I suppose it’s better to pay attention to the old chap, instead…_

     “Ohohoho! Look at you, old chap! Looking sharp as always!” Aesop rubbed their head, before turning his attention to their companion’s face. One of Autumn’s eyes was a brownish colour, matching their hair; the other was a greenish hazel, _Seems like we may have forgotten to ask Pascal to make two of them in the same colour, huh?_ “So, want me to run you through the colours, old chap?” 

“Really…?” Autumn’s face lit up; it had been several months since Aesop had last given them one of his lessons—the majority of these had been related to human customs, mostly the ones which had to do with etiquette and proper behaviour among others.

“Absolutely, old chap! It would probably cause an overload if you tried to take in all that stimuli without understanding it somewhat beforehand.” Aesop already knew instinctively that Autumn hadn’t looked up at the sky—the number one way to achieve that kind of overload—at least, not yet; however, the old machine figured it was more due to his companion being distracted by the two androids standing behind them at the moment, then a lack of curiosity. Aesop focussed his attention on the aforementioned androids.

“The old chap and I are going to speak privately.” The old machine said, “I won’t force you, but it would be greatly appreciated if the two of you left us alone for a little bit.”

    A2’s expression softened extremely ( _Still looks a bit scary though,_ Aesop thought to himself), and she nodded at Aesop, before turning towards the camp entrance while pulling 4S with her.

    “Come back to the camp when you guys are all done.” A2’s long, white hair swished as she walked back into the camp, “We’ll get started on a new mission then.”

     The scanner in the woman’s grip just managed to wave slightly back at Aesop, before the two disappeared from view entirely. The old machine turned back to Autumn, nodding at their smaller companion, before drifting into their thoughts. 

    _Right’ho, old chap! Time to give you a crash course in colours!_ Autumn cast Aesop a worried glance, _Ohohoho! Crash course isn’t that at all, old chap! It just means running through the basics of subject very quickly._

     Or that was Aesop’s understanding at least, his memory had already failed him three times prior when it came to teach Autumn about human records (he thought it was three times at least), so he wasn’t entirely sure himself. 

 _Anyways time for the lesson to begin!_ Aesop projected an image of an apple in front of Autumn, _Notice how this apple looks? This is what we call, red..._

    The lesson took Aesop roughly two hours to complete, since he found it somewhat difficult to describe some of the colours (especially purple and orange), and because Autumn asked why the sky was blue (which took up a good 30 minutes . Regardless, Autumn had a much better understanding of what colours were by the end of the whole endeavour, and upon opening their eyes, they instantly started naming the colours of everything they saw (“Aesop has yellow eyes…!”, “The grass is green!” “The sky is blue!”). It got annoying faster than the Aesop had originally anticipated, and he silenced his smaller companion by making a sound similar to clearing his throat.

“I think you should probably go see A2 and 4S now, old chap.” The old machine trundled over to the spot where he usually waited outside the camp, gesturing for Autumn to go in. “You might also want to grab your suit while you’re at it. We’ll definitely end up fighting something or another.”

Autumn nodded and proceeded down the path.

*-*-*-*

    Autumn caught sight of A2 shortly after entering the camp, talking to a woman which—upon getting close enough to hear her voice—they realized was Anemone; 4S stood on the far side of A2. The Resistance leader also managed to spot them, and waved with a soft smile on her face. Autumn ran up to the three androids, wrapping their arms around Anemone when they reached her.

“Huh?” a look of surprise appeared on the woman’s face, “What’s this for, Autumn?”

“Anemone let Autumn have eyes…Clematis told Autumn before starting surgery…” The smaller figure looked up at Anemone, “Thank you…”

“You’re welcome Autumn.” The woman gave Autumn a small pat on the head, “It’s the least I could do after the work you did for us.” 

      Autumn let go of the Anemone and walked over to A2’s side, grabbing the white-haired android’s hand loosely. Surprisingly, it didn’t elicit much of a reaction out of the woman, who looked down briefly at Autumn before focussing their attention back on Anemone. 

“So, looks like we can’t bug you anymore, huh?” _Bug?_ Autumn remembered how long the lesson from Aesop had taken,  _That would make sense._

“I would honestly prefer if you didn’t bother me about those sorts of topics, period.” Anemone sighed, _What topic?_

“Anyways, we should be heading out, need to get caught up on some of those missions.” A2 turned around and started walking away from the Resistance leader (Autumn waved goodbye as she did), 4S following close behind. 

“Um…” Autumn spoke up before the three of them got too close to the camp entrance. “Can Autumn grab suit…?” 

“Sure.” A2 replied, turning towards the housing area without saying another word.

 _Huh?_ Autumn found A2's behaviour somewhat odd—it was far more flat and unwelcoming than usual. 4S was also being extremely quiet _Did they have a fight?_ The possibility was there; a lot could happen in two hours, and 4S had managed to embarrass A2 earlier. If the two of them had indeed had a fight, it probably would have happened just before Autumn’s lesson ended, which would have prevented them from getting on good terms. _My lesson…_ A pang of guilt shot through Autumn, _If I hadn’t taken as long…would they have fought?_ The feeling curdled inside them, worsening to a tangled web of uncertainty and self-hatred by the time they reached the door of A2's room.

_“What are you doing?!? Don’t you dare try and disobey me! I’m…one….who….”_

    Autumn froze, their hand shot up to their head. _What was that?_ They felt their body grow cold and weak, _Don’t tell me the box—_ a mechanical voice answered their question before it finished. 

_//No activity is being detected from the ‘data box'. Former thought appears to be a recent memory._

    The last two words made Autumn fall to their knees, their vision became unfocused, a noise started to erupt from the outside. They grabbed at either side of either side of their ears, ignoring the shooting pain coming from their functional unit still in cool down, and turned their attention back to the voice of the support unit

_What do you mean recent? How recent?_

_//There seems to be an error in this unit's database. Would you like to attempt a recovery, 1-37X?_

_Do it. Now._  

Having to concentrate on the voice was difficult, but it distracted greatly from the incessant noise around Autumn. With the voice gone, the noise came back full force, causing they experimental unit to curl up on the ground, clutching their ears more violently.

_Hurry up!_

_//Data recovery attempt failed to give an exact time. Recovery attempt failed to give an exact date. Failed to give an exact month. Failed to give an exact year. Failed to give an exact decade._

_How is that even possible!? You’ve been assigned to me for less than a decade!_

_//Data corruption seems to have removed all time stamps from this data. This indicates a forced, selective memory erasure. Cross-referencing data shows that this unit may have witnessed said event._

_That recently? In other words it could only have happ—GAH!!!_

     The noises grew louder, what had been indistinct before, was now a high-pitched screech. It tore through Autumn’s consciousness, tearing apart their logical thoughts, and oppressing all emotions besides fear. As the flow of nonsensical information increased, Autumn began to lose the feeling their functional unit (though there was barely any to begin with), then their legs lost it, their face, their body, their arm….their mind was at risk of being shattered. The noise slowed for a split second, before creating a jolt—a cascade—of information, breaking Autumn's sight completely, enveloping them in darkness.

_@££♤\\}♡\8No…££¥¥*i’$%^109**@¥(€÷dont@_××klkkoppppp## &×*want□□~●●●•<this@&₩×)×)@())))(¥_

The overload was becoming too much, Autumn couldn’t survive if it kept up. 

They would die.

Without getting to see the world properly.

Without getting to see Aesop again

Without getting to see 4S again.

Without getting to see A2 again.

Without her knowing the truth.

Without telling her that they're—

“GGAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH” Their scream was long, sustained, and loud. Truly loud. So loud it managed to just pierce the noise clouding Autumn's mind, before the noise completely overtook their mind. 

+×+×+×+

     A2 broke her stoic mask the minute she felt Autumn let go of her hand, her breath stopping immediately and her eyes widening. A2 quickly knelt down and placed an arm around the small android, shaking them.

“Autumn?! What’s wrong!?!” she turned her head towards 4S, who was standing at Autumn in shock. “For God's sake, 4S! Get your shit together and help me figure out what’s going on with them!”

     The scanner nodded and quickly pulled up the hacking menu, trying to establish a connection. A2 focussed her attention back on Autumn, who was now curled on the ground, their head buried between their legs. In the chaos, A2 realized how cold Autumn's arms had become, the only heat left came from their chest, which was becoming hotter, almost too hot. Their body movements (that is their shaking and breathing) began grinding to a halt. Fear began to fill A2. _Autumn, don’t you dare die on us!_ She turned back to 4S, who appeared to be struggling.

“Hurry the hell up, 4S! Autumn won’t make it if we wait any goddamn longer!” the woman had an anger to her voice, one which made the scanner furrow his brow more.

“I’m trying as hard as I can!” the boy's voice cracked as he shouted, “But the firewalls are changing every few seconds, I can’t get through them quickly enough!”

“Work faster, goddamit! I don’t want to hear any—” 

That’s when it happened.

“GGAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!” Autumn's scream was deafening—and distorted. 

“Autumn?!? We’re right here! Come back!” A2 found herself shouting louder than normal, _Shit. Come back._

    She suddenly became aware of another sound: a high-pitched warble—an alarm. 4S motioned to the door, still working frantically to try and get Autumn operational. 

“Its coming from our room!” the scanner shouted, “It might be related to why Autumn is acting like this! Go!” 

     A2 didn’t need to be told twice, she practically broke the door off its hinges as she charged into the room, the alarm getting 3 times louder as she did. Her attention was instantly drawn to the Autumn's armour, placed neatly in a pile by their bedside. A blinking red light emanated from a small hole in one of the pockets on the chest piece. She reached down and opened the pocket, revealing a small rod. The second her hand touched it, it spoke up.

“Authorization confirmed. Relaying distress.” _The hell?_ “ Attention YoRHa unit A2, I am IFSU1-37, the support unit assigned to unit 1-37X. Currently, 1-37X is infected with a virus. As per my duties as a support, it is my job to cleanse 1-37X of viruses. Please bring me to unit 1-37X with haste so I may accomplish said task.”

    A2 had many questions, but they had to wait for now; all that mattered was saving Autumn at this point. She raced out of the room and held the device in her hand next to Autumn's neck. The device began to create a blue stream between a small port on the little android and itself. The light quickly became too intense to look at, and A2 closed her eyes. 

     Finally, after an excruciating 5 minutes, the stream burst, and A2 opened her eyes. The rod said something which A2 didn’t pay attention to (“Virus removal complete”), she was too focussed on Autumn's small form lying crumpled on the ground. _Please. Please don’t be too late._

    4S had joined the woman at Autumn's side, a look of concern spreading over his face, before speaking.

“Hey, A2?” the boy's voice was hushed, and heavy. “I'm sorry for getting mad at you earlier.”

“Huh?” Where the hell is this coming from? A2 cocked her eyebrow at the scanner, before looking back down at Autumn, who appeared to have begun breathing again. _Oh, that…_ “No, I’m sorry, Four. I shouldn’t have reacted so badly to you trying to voice your opinion on what we should do.”

“I think Autumn may have noticed we had fought...” The woman’s eyes widened at those words. _Autumn did?_ “While we were walking here, they looked really worried, and they looked over at both of us too. Plus, we weren’t exactly acting like ourselves either…” 

“Do you think…maybe it’s our fault this happened to Autumn?” A2 accidentally voiced her thoughts, causing 4S to make a grim expression down at the little android’s body, whose chest rose and fell steadily.

“It is not unit A2's fault that this occurred.” The rod began speaking again, for some reason though, 4S seemed to not notice. “1-37X inadvertently opened up a corrupted piece of data with a custom made virus contained within. Though the way that units A2 and 4S may have been acting likely allowed 1-37's mind to drift, calculations show that said data was guaranteed to resurface no later than 3 months from now.” 

“Why the hell was there a virus in Autumn?” 4S turned their head towards A2, and shook their head. _So he really can’t hear this thing, Huh?_

“Virus source is unknown. Proposed timeframe for virus installation by unit 1-37X is between the years of 11941 and 11945, as these are the years during which 1-37 was not in the Rebirth facility.” _That year—wait, what? Rebirth?_ Before A2 could ask anymore questions, Autumn began to stir.

“Mmmn….” The small android rubbed their eyes as they slowly sat up, “A2….4S….?”

“Autumn!” without thinking, A2 found her arms wrapping around Autumn’s small frame, pulling them close to her. The tears started flowing from A2's eyes, the woman not realizing them until they reached her chin. 4S placed a hand on Autumn's back, rubbing it gently. “I’m…So glad…you’re okay…”

“What…what does A2….mean…?” Autumn pushed away slightly to look the woman in the eyes. “Did Autumn fall down on the way here…?” 

A2’s eyes widened slightly, _They don’t remember?_

“Virus removal requires the deletion of all states of the mind following major infection. 1-37X doesn’t remember anything after the point at which they froze on the spot.” The device spoke again, _You’re kidding..._ A2 snapped back to reality upon feeling Autumn push lightly against her arms, asking to be let out of her embrace. She obliged, and stood up slowly. 

“Is A2 okay…?” Autumn asked with a concerned expression on their face, before turning to 4S. “Did 4S and A2 fight…?” 

Both of the accused looked down at the ground, before looking at each other. 

“A2 and 4S are partners…partners shouldn’t fight each other…” Autumn was somehow simultaneously consoling them and pouting at the same time. “A2 and 4S should make up now…!” 

   4S stared nervously into A2's eyes, long enough that it eventually made the woman slightly uncomfortable. 

“C'mere, Four.” With little warning, she hugged the boy gently, a hand in his hair, another around his back. 

“A2? You already apologized…” The scanner mumbled, “You don’t need to—”

“I’m sorry, Four. For tying you up earlier. ” 4S stiffened a bit, “I reacted a immaturely to you not understanding my joke.”

“Y-you really don’t need to bring that up, A2. “ 4S blushed a bit, before reducing his voice to a whisper. “Especially not here, please? People might look at—” 

   4S went completely frozen as soon he looked over to the area below the housing. A2 followed his vision; most of the Resistance members in the area seemed to be either looking at the two of them or turning away from the two of them. _Huh._

“U-um…A2 can you let go? This is getting a bit awkward…” the scanner placed a hand on her abdomen in an attempt to put more space between the two of them. 

“Hey, Autumn. Come join in.” The little android obliged immediately, and slid into the space between 4S and A2, their back against A2. 

“Wha—A Twooooo, that's not fair…” _Nice try, Four, but impersonating 9S isn’t about to make me let you out of this early._ A2 smiled and ruffled the boy's black hair.

    The three stayed like this for another half a minute before A2 let go (Autumn held onto 4S a bit longer), and handed Autumn the rod lying by the door. They took it without saying anything, only nodding, and walked into the apartment. A2 was about to follow, but the little android stopped her.

“Wait for Autumn to change please…” they looked to down and scratched their chin, “Autumn would be embarrassed if A2 watched…”

“Oh, sorry Autumn.” Suddenly a thought hit A2—a very clear detail which didn’t add up. “Wait, are you getting changed into your armour? Autumn I don’t think that’s—”

“1-37X is in a stable condition. Combat systems were left mostly untouched by the virus, and this unit was able to remove the virus before permanent damage could be dealt to bodily functions.” The rod in Autumn's hand spoke again, going unnoticed by the android holding it. _Is it talking telepathically or something?_

“A2…?” Autumn cast a quizzical glance at the woman. “Is something wrong…?” 

“It’s nothing, Autumn. Go ahead and get changed.” The woman closed the door behind Autumn as best she could. _Anemone won't be too happy about this…_

“What was that device you gave Autumn?” A2 turned to face 4S, his face full of confusion. “You also used it on Autumn to get rid of the virus, but what is it?”

“Four, this isn’t really the place to talk about that.” A2’s voice was hushed, Autumn definitely doesn’t need extra attention. “I guarantee you Autumn will be more than happy to tell you about it when we get on the road.” 

“Oh, alright then.” 4S seemed to understand quickly enough, and went silent until after Autumn exited the room, now wearing the suit which A2 had originally found them in. Their mask was also back on as well, covering their eyes. Autumn gestured to their back.

“Please help with clips…?” The back piece of the armour was sitting fairly loosely on the little android, the clips poking out slightly off the top. 

“I’ll get it for you, Autumn.” A2 placed her hands on the carbon plates, pressing them against Autumn's back, and locking down the clips holding them. “There you go.”

“Thank you A2…!” Autumn said cheerily, “Let’s get started…!”

The small android grabbed A2’s and 4S' hands and began pulling them to walk down the steps. The two of them walked up so they were beside Autumn and began to head out of the camp.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A virus implantation?!
> 
> Okay so this work is currently on hiatus for the foreseeable future until I get the next two chapter outlines completed.


	13. Memories

_Fear._

_Anger._

_Sadness._

_These emotions dominated Aesop’s consciousness in a swirling vortex; the old machine had experienced each in its purest form, longer than the one before it. The war going on around them had been in a stalemate for centuries, although Aesop wasn’t counting—they had begun to lose their concept o time years earlier. The machine had armed themselves following their discovery of sadness: a large spear with a practically flawless blade, resting in the same place which once held a far more crude lance._

_Aesop trundled through the ruins of a now-decrepit city. There was not a machine or android in sight here, and Aesop certainly was able to sense anything either. The old machine looked around for an alley, or another place to hide; these abandoned areas were the best places for Aesop to rest, as the chance of attack from hostiles was far lower. As Aesop searched, the emotions within them battled each other. One hiding place had debris in it—anger took control, and told the machine the spot was too unclean. Another had a slab of concrete overt it—fear took over, telling the machine the spot was too dangerous. Yet another had a dying moose near it—sadness took over, saying it would hurt to stay near the animal. The negativistic thought process of the machine, made it nearly impossible for them to find a spot to choose._

_Aesop spent several hours wandering before coming across a small clearing. The area was surprisingly lush; a small pond lay at the centre, surrounded by greenery, most prominently a small tree with a gap underneath it. The machine approached to investigate, finding it odd that nothing here was particularly maddening, or saddening. As they looked down into the dark hole in the tree, they feared the worst, expecting something to attack them; instead, all that jumped out was a baby fox, followed by their brothers and sisters. They jumped up onto a surprised Aesop and began looking over all the small details of the machine. For some reason, this didn’t bother Aesop in the slightest; in fact, it seemed to have an almost therapeutic effect on the machine._

_A warmness began building in the machine’s core. It was the final emotion they had been lacking_

 

_Aesop had finally learned happiness._

 

 A shock ran through Aesop's body, bringing him back to reality. He looked down to see Autumn replacing their hacking device back into their pocket. The machine’s companion had replaced their armour, which confirmed Aesop’s suspicions that it did indeed make them look taller. 

“That was quite the rude awakening, old chap!” Aesop spoke in mock anger, half-expecting Autumn to take it seriously. Instead, they transmitted a message to him.

_...That's—I can’t control it, old chap!...I have no idea why it happens!_

“Hey, could you hurry up, Aesop?” A2's voice sounded slightly annoyed. “We need to make up for lost time here.”

The old machine stared at the long-haired android—an almost stiff air threatening to form for a moment—before bowing his head.

“Apologies, A2. Let us begin.” Aesop trundled over to where the two androids were patiently waiting, stopping to allow them climb on his back. “Where are we headed today?”

“The desert,” 4S replied, “Anemone said there was some work Jackass wanted done.” 

The machine tilted his head at the name.

“Jack…ass?” _What kind of name is that?_

“I don’t know why she calls herself that either,” A2 sighed, “But she's smarter than most of the androids in the Resistance.”

“And the most reckless…” Aesop could practically hear the scanner rub his temple as he said this.

“Is that so…?” _Why do I feel like I should have seen this character earlier?_ The machine brought a hand to his chin in consideration.

“What does Miss Jackass look like…?” all three of the companions struggled to keep themselves from laughing at how innocently Autumn asked the question—and how they had said the woman's name so formally. 

“Well—I mean, she looks like any other member of the Resistance,” 4S was the first to answer. “She wears a hood and robes just like Anemone—its safe to say you’ll remember her because of behaviour, not her outfit.”

“Oh…Okay…!” Autumn’s cheery voice continued to ask questions throughout the trip down to the desert.

?*?*?*?

  _“I’m fine, don’t worry about—hrk!” their voice was cut short as their chest spasmed, shooting pain through their body._

_The others looked at their malfunctioning comrade worriedly, the oldest one giving the grimmest expression of all._

_“Your hardware wasn’t built for this kind of environment; from what I can tell, your functional unit is already in an irreparable state, and that damage is now spreading to the rest of your body.” The tone in their voice was grave, “You likely won't last more than another week now.” They clenched their jaw in a grimace, “I’m sorry.”_

_The dying one’s eyes widened, before relaxing and looking down with a sad smile—twitching due to the malfunction._

_“I see…” they looked over to the shortest one in the group, who looked to be close to tears. “You don’t need to cry, April. You already knew this would probably happen eventually, right?”_

_The short figure clenched their fists together, lips pursed tightly._

_“I know that, but...” a trickle of fluid began leaking down their cheek, “You…haven’t even gotten the chance to...”_

_The dying one moved closer to April, wrapping their right arm around them, while their left hung limply at their side—a result of the hardware in it short-circuiting._

_“Its fine, April, I don’t mind. After all…” the figure backed away from April, “ I’ve already made more precious memories than I ever thought possible with all of you.”_

_The dying figure turned around, facing the exit of the large bunker they had been hiding in with the rest of the group._

_“I know this world wasn’t meant for us anyways, so I’m honoured to have been able to even see it.” They turned their head to look back at the four staring at them in denial, before smiling. “I’ll miss you guys! Be sure to keep making new memories with each other, ok?”_

_They waved to the ones they had called companions for the past 4 years, before grabbing their gun and firing it off in their chest._

_………_

_“We need to get out of here.” The eldest spoke first, their voice heavy and strained, “Our signals are too likely to be picked up if we stay"_

_The tallest of the group made a pained, metallic sound—shaking their head while looking down at seemingly nothing. The other was looking away, teeth clenched tightly together, their eyes moist from sadness. April had a hand cupped around over their mouth, cheeks stained from crying. The eldest's words only further reinforced what they already knew: they were fugitives, doomed to be on the run from those who created them._

_“First however,” the eldest turned back to their deceased companion, “We need to bury them._ ” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Soooooooo this was a painfully short chapter. But with this I can at least advance the plot forward more. 
> 
>  
> 
> As always, I look forward to your thoughts and criticisms!


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